DIWAKAR EDUCATION HUB

Data Communication and Computer

Networks Unit – 9
As per updated syllabus
DIWAKAR EDUCATION HUB

2020

THE LEARN WITH EXPERTIES

Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

Data communication

Data communication refers to the exchange of data between a source and a

receiver via form of transmission media such as a wire cable. Data communication
is said to be local if communicating devices are in the same building or a similarly
restricted geographical area.

The meanings of source and receiver are very simple. The device that transmits
the data is known as source and the device that receives the transmitted data is
known as receiver. Data communication aims at the transfer of data and
maintenance of the data during the process but not the actual generation of
the information at the source and receiver.

Datum mean the facts information statistics or the like derived by calculation or
experimentation. The facts and information so gathered are processed in
accordance with defined systems of procedure. Data can exist in a variety of
forms such as numbers, text, bits and bytes. The Figure is an illustration of a
simple data communication system.

The term data used to describe information, under whatever form of words you
will be using.

A data communication system may collect data from remote locations through
data transmission circuits, and then outputs processed results to remote
locations. Figure provides a broader view of data communication networks. The
different data communication techniques which are presently in widespread use
evolved gradually either to improve the data communication techniques already
existing or to replace the same with better options and features. Then, there are

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data communication jargons to contend with such as baud rate, modems, routers,
LAN, WAN, TCP/IP, ISDN, during the selection of communication systems. Hence,
it becomes necessary to review and understand these terms and gradual
development of data communication methods.

Components of data communication system

A Communication system has following components:

1. Message: It is the information or data to be communicated. It can consist of

text, numbers, pictures, sound or video or any combination of these.

This is most useful asset of a data communication system. The message simply
refers to data or piece of information which is to be communicated. A message
could be in any form, it may be in form of a text file, an audio file, a video file, etc.

2. Sender: It is the device/computer that generates and sends that message.

To transfer message from source to destination, someone must be there who will
play role of a source. Sender plays part of a source in data communication system.
It is simple a device that sends data message. The device could be in form of a
computer, mobile, telephone, laptop, video camera, or a workstation, etc.

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3. Receiver: It is the device or computer that receives the message. The location
of receiver computer is generally different from the sender computer. The
distance between sender and receiver depends upon the types of network used in
between.

It is destination where finally message sent by source has arrived. It is a device

that receives message. Same as sender, receiver can also be in form of a
computer, telephone mobile, workstation, etc.

4. Medium: It is the channel or physical path through which the message is

carried from sender to the receiver. The medium can be wired like twisted pair
wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable or wireless like laser, radio waves, and
microwaves.

In entire process of data communication, there must be something which could

act as a bridge between sender and receiver, Transmission medium plays that
part. It is physical path by which data or message travels from sender to receiver.
Transmission medium could be guided (with wires) or unguided (without wires),
for example, twisted pair cable, fiber optic cable, radio waves, microwaves, etc.

5. Protocol: It is a set of rules that govern the communication between the

devices. Both sender and receiver follow same protocols to communicate with
each other.

To govern data communications, various sets of rules had been already designed
by the designers of the communication systems, which represent a kind of
agreement between communicating devices. These are defined as protocol. In
simple terms, the protocol is a set of rules that govern data communication. If
two different devices are connected but there is no protocol among them, there
would not be any kind of communication between those two devices. Thus the
protocol is necessary for data communication to take place.

A protocol performs the following functions:

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1. Data sequencing. It refers to breaking a long message into smaller packets of

fixed size. Data sequencing rules define the method of numbering packets to
detect loss or duplication of packets, and to correctly identify packets, which
belong to same message.

2. Data routing. Data routing defines the most efficient path between the source
and destination.

3. Data formatting. Data formatting rules define which group of bits or characters
within packet constitute data, control, addressing, or other information.

4. Flow control. A communication protocol also prevents a fast sender from

overwhelming a slow receiver. It ensures resource sharing and protection against
traffic congestion by regulating the flow of data on communication lines.

5. Error control. These rules are designed to detect errors in messages and to
ensure transmission of correct messages. The most common method is to
retransmit erroneous message block. In such a case, a block having error is
discarded by the receiver and is retransmitted by the sender.

6. Precedence and order of transmission. These rules ensure that all the nodes
get a chance to use the communication lines and other resources of the network
based on the priorities assigned to them.

7. Connection establishment and termination. These rules define how

connections are established, maintained and terminated when two nodes of a
network want to communicate with each other.

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8. Data security. Providing data security and privacy is also built into most
communication software packages. It prevents access of data by unauthorized
users.

9. Log information. Several communication software are designed to develop log

information, which consists of all jobs and data communications tasks that have
taken place. Such information may be used for charging the users of the network
based on their usage of the network resources.

The effectiveness depends on four fundamental characteristics of data

communications

1. Delivery: The data must be deliver in correct order with correct destination.
2. Accuracy: The data must be deliver accurately.
3. Timeliness: The data must be deliver in a timely manner.late delivered Data
useless.
4. Jitter: It is the uneven delay in the packet arrival time that cause uneven
quality.

Transmission mode means transferring of data between two devices. It is also

known as communication mode. Buses and networks are designed to allow
communication to occur between individual devices that are interconnected.
There are three types of transmission mode:-

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1. Simplex Mode
2. Half-Duplex Mode
3. Full-Duplex Mode

Simplex Mode
In Simplex mode, the communication is unidirectional, as on a one-way street.
Only one of the two devices on a link can transmit, the other can only receive. The
simplex mode can use the entire capacity of the channel to send data in one
direction.
Example: Keyboard and traditional monitors. The keyboard can only introduce
input, the monitor can only give the output.

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Half-Duplex Mode
In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit and receive, but not at the
same time. When one device is sending, the other can only receive, and vice
versa. The half-duplex mode is used in cases where there is no need for
communication in both direction at the same time. The entire capacity of the
channel can be utilized for each direction.
Example: Walkie- talkie in which message is sent one at a time and messages are
sent in both the directions.

Full-Duplex Mode
In full-duplex mode, both stations can transmit and receive simultaneously. In
full_duplex mode, signals going in one direction share the capacity of the link with
signals going in other direction, this sharing can occur in two ways:

 Either the link must contain two physically separate transmission paths,
one for sending and other for receiving.
 Or the capacity is divided between signals travelling in both directions.

Full-duplex mode is used when communication in both direction is required all

the time. The capacity of the channel, however must be divided between the two
directions.

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Example: Telephone Network in which there is communication between two

persons by a telephone line, through which both can talk and listen at the same
time.

The communication system is a system which describes the information exchange

between two points. The process of transmission and reception of information is
called communication. The major elements of communication are
the Transmitter of information, Channel or medium of communication and
the Receiver of information.

Types Of Communication Systems

Depending on Signal specification or technology, the communication system is

classified as follows:

(1) Analog

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Analog technology communicates data as electronic signals of varying frequency

or amplitude. Broadcast and telephone transmission are common examples of
Analog technology.

(2) Digital

In digital technology, the data are generated and processed in two states: High
(represented as 1) and Low (represented as 0). Digital technology stores and
transmits data in the form of 1s and 0s.

Depending on the communication channel, the communication system is

categorized as follows:

1. Wired (Line communication)

 Parallel wire communication

 Twisted wire communication

 Coaxial cable communication

 Optical fibre communication

2. Wireless (Space communication)

 Ground wave communication

 Skywave communication

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 Space wave communication

 Satellite communication

Examples Of Communication Systems

The following are a few examples of communication systems:

1. Internet

2. Public Switched Telephone network

3. Intranet and Extranet

4. Television

Elements Of Communication Systems

The definitions of the terms used in the communication system are discussed
below.

Information

Message or information is the entity that is to be transmitted. It can be in the

form of audio, video, temperature, picture, pressure, etc.

Signal

The single-valued function of time that carries the information. The information is
converted into an electrical form for transmission.

Transducer

A device or an arrangement that converts one form of energy to the other. An

electrical transducer converts physical variables such as pressure, force,
temperature into corresponding electrical signal variations. Example: Microphone
– converts audio signals into electrical signals. Photodetector – converts light
signals into electrical signals.

Amplifier
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The electronic circuit or device that increases the amplitude or the strength of the
transmitted signal is called an amplifier. When the signal strength becomes less
than the required value, amplification can be done anywhere in between
transmitter and receiver. A DC power source will provide for the amplification.

Modulator

As the original message signal cannot be transmitted over a large distance

because of their low frequency and amplitude, they are superimposed with high
frequency and amplitude wave called carrier wave. This phenomenon of
superimposing of message signal with a carrier wave is called modulation. And
the resultant wave is a modulated wave which is to be transmitted.

Again there are different types of Modulation.

i. Amplitude Modulation (AM)

The process of changing the amplitude of the signal wave by impressing or

superimposing it on a high-frequency carrier wave, keeping its frequency constant
is called amplitude modulation.

ii. Frequency Modulation (FM)

Frequency modulation is a technique in which the frequency of the message

signal is varied by modulating with a carrier wave. It is better than deficient than
amplitude modulation because it eliminates noise from various sources.

iii. Phase Modulation (PM)

The phase of the carrier wave changes the phase of the signal wave. The phase
shift after modulation is dependent on the frequency of the carrier wave as well.
Phase modulated waves are immune to noise to a greater extent.

Transmitter

It is the arrangement that processes the message signal into a suitable form for
transmission and subsequently reception.

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Antenna

An Antenna is a structure or a device that is radiate and receive electromagnetic

waves. So, they are used in both transmitters and receivers. An antenna is
basically a metallic object, often a collection of wires. The electromagnetic waves
are polarised according to the position of the antenna.

Channel

A channel refers to a physical medium such as wire, cables, space through which
the signal is passed from transmitter to the receiver. There are many channel
impairments that affect the channel performance to a pronounced level. Noise,
Attenuation and distortion to mention the major impairments.

Noise

Noise is one of the channel imperfection or impairment in the received signal at

the destination. There are external and internal sources that cause noise. External
sources include interference, i.e. interference from nearby transmitted signals
(cross talk), interference generated by natural source such as lightning, solar or
cosmic radiation, from automobile generated radiation, etc. The external noise
can be minimised and eliminated by appropriate design of the channel, shielding
of cables. Also by digital transmission external noise can be much minimised.

Internal sources include noise due to random motion and collision of electrons in
the conductors, thermal noise due to diffusion and recombination of charge
carriers in other electronic devices. Internal noise can be minimised by cooling
and using digital technology for transmission.

 A different cable design.

 Proper design of the channel.
 Use digital transmission
 Using BPF or LPF at the receiver side.

Attenuation

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Attenuation is a problem caused by the medium. When the signal is propagating

for a longer distance through a medium, depending on the length of the medium
the initial power decreases. The loss in initial power is directly proportional to the
length of the medium. Using amplifiers, the signal power is strengthened or
amplified so as to reduce attenuation. Also, digital signals are comparatively less
prone to attenuation than analogue signals.

Distortion

It is also another type of channel problem. When the signal is distorted, the
distorted signal may have frequency and bandwidth different from the
transmitted signal. The variation in the signal frequency can be linear or non-
linear.

Receiver

An arrangement that extracts the message or information from the transmitted

signal at the output end of the channel and reproduces it in a suitable form as the
original message signal is a receiver.

Demodulator

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It is the inverse phenomenon of modulation. The process of separation of

message signal from the carrier wave takes place in the demodulator. The
information is retrieved from the modulated wave.

Repeaters

Repeaters are placed at different locations in between the transmitter and

receiver. A repeater receives the transmitted signal, amplifies it and send it to the
next repeater without distorting the original signal.

Block Diagram of Communication Systems

The block diagram given below represents the flow of the signal from the source
to the destination. The role of every device and arrangement discussed above is
better understood.

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Difference between the Analog signals and Digital signals

Analog signals Digital signals

Analog signals are difficult to get Digital signals are easy to analyse.
analysed at first.

Analog signals are more accurate than Digital signals are less accurate.
digital signals.

Analog signals take time to be stored. It Digital signals can be easily stored.
has infinite memory.

To record an analog signal, the In recording digital signal, the sample

technique used, preserves the original signals are taken and preserved.

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signals.

There is a continuous representation of There is a discontinuous

signals in analog signals. representation of signals in digital
signals.

Analog signals produce too much noise. Digital signals do not produce noise.

Examples of analog signals are Human Examples of digital signals are

voice, Thermometer, Analog phones etc. Computers, Digital Phones, Digital
pens, etc.

Conversion of Analog signals to Digital signals

Most of the image sensors are in the analog signal, and digital processing cannot
be applied on it, as it requires infinite memory to store because signals have an
infinite value that is why we cannot store it.

To create a digital image we can convert data into digital form.

For the conversion there are two steps:

1. Sampling

2. Quantization

To convert an analog signal into a digital signal, both its axis(x,y) are converted
into digital format.

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As we can see that image is continuous in its coordinates(x-y). So sampling deals

with digitizing of co-ordinates and quantization deals with digitizing the
amplitude.

Sampling

In analog signals, there are continuous electrical signals that vary with time. With
the help of subsystem, a sampler extracts continuous signals for the sampling of
signals.

(Sampling of signals)

Sampling is done along the x-axis of signals that continuously differs with time. It
is divided into two category one is sampling and other is downsampling.

In downsampling, the range of values on the x-axis is always less.

Quantization

It is a process of image processing, in which continuous and time-varying values of

analog signals are divided into non-overlapping discrete and unique values
assigned to each subrange.

Sampling and quantization are opposite to each other. Sampling is done along the
x-axis but quantization is done along the y-axis.

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In the image processing, the sampled image is considered as a digital value. When
there is a transition of states between time-varying values of image function and
its digital equivalent signifies quantization.

(conversion of analog signals to digital signals).

The main problem in the image is the continuous occurrence of false contours
which can be quantized later with inadequate brightness levels. The fine shading
of the image depends on the level of quantization.

Noiseless Channel

An ideal channel in which no frames are lost, duplicated or corrupted is regarded

as Noiseless Channel.

Simplest Protocol

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 In simplest protocol, there is no flow control and error control mechanism.

It is a unidirectional protocol in which data frames travel in only one
direction (from sender to receiver).

 Also, the receiver can immediately handle any received frame with a
processing time that is small enough to be negligible.

 The protocol consists of two distinct procedures :a sender and receiver.

The sender runs in the data link layer of the source machine and the
receiver runs in the data link layer of the destination machine. No sequence
number or acknowledgements are used here.

Stop and Wait Protocol

 The simplest retransmission protocol is stop-and-wait.

 Transmitter (Station A) sends a frame over the communication line and

then waits for a positive or negative acknowledgement from the receiver
(station B).

 If no error occurs in the transmission, station B sends a positive

acknowledgement (ACK) to station A.

 Now, the transmitter starts to send the next frame. If frame is received at
station B with errors, then a negative acknowledgement(NAK) is sent to
station A. In this case, station 'A' must retransmit the old packet in a new
frame.

 There is also a possibility that the information frames or ACKs may get lost.

 Then, the sender is equipped with a timer. If no recognizable

acknowledgement is received when the timer expires at the end of time
out interval, the same frame is sent again.

 The sender which sends one frame and then waits for an acknowledgement
before process is known as stop and wait.

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Noisy Channels

Consider the normal situation of a communication channel that makes errors.

Frames may be either damaged or lost completely.

1. Stop and Wait Automatic Repeat Request

 In a noisy communication channel, if a frame is damaged in transit, the

receiver hardware will detect this when it computes the checksum.

 If a damaged frame is received, it will be discarded and transmitter will

retransmit the same frame after receiving a proper acknowledgement.

 If the acknowledgement frame gets lost and data link layer on 'A' eventually
times out. Not having received an ACK, it assumes that its data frame was
lost or damaged and sends the frame containing packet 1 again. This
duplicate frame also arrives at data link layer on 'B', thus part of file will be
duplicated and protocol is said to be failed.

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 A typical approach to solve this problem is the provision of a sequence

number in the header of the message.

 The receiver can then check the sequence number determine if the
message is a duplicate since only message is transmitted at any time.

 The sending and receiving station needs only 1-bit alternating sequence of
'0' or '1' to maintain the relationship of the transmitted message and its
ACK/ NAK.

 A modulo-2 numbering scheme is used where the frames are alternatively

label with '0' or '1' and positive acknowledgements are of the form ACK 0
and ACK 1.

2. Sequence numbers

 The protocol specifies that frames need to be numbered. This is done by

using sequence number. A field is added to the data frame to hold the
sequence number of that frame.

 The sequence numbers are based on modulo-2 arithmetic.

 Stop-and-wait ARQ is the simplest mechanism for error and flow control.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a range of frequencies within a continuous set of frequencies. It is

measured in Hertz. The purpose of a communication system is to transfer
information from the transmitter which is located in one place to a receiver which
is usually far away from the transmitter. When we send an email, we are sending
it as bits of information to the receiver. This information is transported over the
air or wire at a certain frequency depending on the mode chosen. Another factor
at play is that the information can be in many forms; voice, video, photo, word
document, etc. Luckily there is a very large spectrum of frequencies waiting for
our bidding.

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The smaller frequencies are used for long-distance communication and can travel
unaffected over large distances, ie, less attenuation. Larger frequencies have
greater energy and can carry more information but they are very inefficient and
cannot be transmitted over long distances. One such set of frequencies are used
for a very different purpose than others, ie the microwaves. For transmitting
sounds or speech, the frequency range of 300 Hz to 3100 Hz is sufficient and
hence the current telephones operate at a bandwidth of 2800 Hz. Transmission of
music requires a bandwidth of the signal of 20 kHz because of the various
instruments with a variety of pitches.

The audible range of a human is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz whereas a dog can hear
from 50 Hz to 46 kHz. The key characteristic of bandwidth is that any band of a
given width can carry the same amount of information, regardless of where the
band is located in the frequency spectrum. For example, a 4kHz signal bandwidth
can transmit a telephone conversation whether it is through lower frequency, like
a wired telephone or modulated to a higher frequency, ie cell phone.

What we discussed till now was with respect to analog signals. Digital signals are
in rectangular form, either on or off, ie 1 or 0. The sine wave is the fundamental
waveform and every other kind of waveform (triangular, rectangular as in digital)

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can be written as a combination of the fundamental sine wave. We get digital

pulses when we superimpose sine waves of different harmonics.

Bandwidth of Transmission Medium

There are various methods of transmission, yes lots of them. From smoke signals
and beating drums to the current fiber optics. The amount of data these various
methods can transfer differ hugely. During the 1990’s and the early 2000’s, India
had dial-up internet which was really slow but now with infrastructure changes
we have faster internet. Wires are the most commonly used transmission media.
A wire offers a bandwidth of approximately 750 MHz. The transmission over the
air and free space range from a few hundred kHz to a few GHz. An optical
fiber can offer a signal bandwidth of over 100 GHz. The bandwidths are allocated
to radios, televisions and cellular communication companies by the government
of the country.

Measurement of the Bandwidth of a Signal

Bandwidth is a key concept in several technological fields. In signal processing, it

describes the difference between upper and lower frequencies in transmission
signals like radio signals, etc. The measurement of the bandwidth of a signal is
done in hertz (Hz). Depending on the context, the bandwidth may specifically be
referred to passband bandwidth or base bandwidth.

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A signal processing system works efficiently over a finite range of frequencies.

Within this band of frequencies, the response of a system is flat. Outside this
band, the frequency response gradually drops off. The boundary in a system’s
frequency response at which the energy flowing through a system reduces rather
than passing through is known as the cutoff frequency. A passband bandwidth is a
difference between the upper and lower cut off frequency and a baseband
bandwidth equals the highest frequency of a system. Bandwidth in hertz is a
central concept in many fields like electronics, radio communications, digital
communications, information theory, etc.

Latency

Latency is the time it takes for a packet to get across the network, from source to
destination. It is measured in units of time — ms (millisecond, or 1/1,000 of a
second).

The time taken for a packet to be transferred across a network. We can measure
this as one-way to its destination or as a round trip.

What Causes Network Latency?

Network latency can be caused by a range of issues but generally, it comes down
to the state of routers and the distance between our network devices. The more
routers a packet has to travel through the more latency there is because each
router has to process the packet. In most cases, this latency isn’t noticeable but
when traffic travels across the internet it can be more pronounced (because the
number of routers the packet passes through increases).

The distance that a packet travels can also have a significant influence on the
amount of latency within a network. A packet that travels around the world
would have at least 250 ms of latency. In enterprise-level networks, latency is
present to a lesser extent. When packets travel across a network to their
destination, they rarely travel to the node in a straight line. As such the amount of
latency is dependent on the route that the packet takes.

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On a well-designed network, efficient routes should be available so that packets

arrive promptly at their destination. If the network is poorly-designed with
indirect network paths then latency is going to be much more pronounced.

Throughput

The quantity of data being sent and received within a unit of time.

Throughput is the actual amount of data that is successfully sent/received over

the communication link. Throughput is presented as kbps, Mbps or Gbps, and can
differ from bandwidth due to a range of technical issues, including latency, packet
loss, jitter and more.

Throughput is the actual speed with which data gets transferred over the
network. Besides transmitting the actual data, network bandwidth is used for
transmitting error messages, acknowledgement frames, etc.

Throughput is a better measurement of network speed, efficiency and capacity

utilization rather than bandwidth.

What Causes Poor Network Throughput?

Poor network throughput can be caused by several factors. One of the main
culprits is poor hardware performance. If devices like routers are experiencing
performance degradation, faults, or are simply outdated then our can end up with
low throughput. Likewise, if computer networks are congested with lots of traffic
then packet loss will occur. Packet loss is where data packets are lost in transit.
Low network throughput is often caused when packets are lost in transit.

Why are Network Latency and Throughput Important?

Both network latency and throughput are important because they have an effect
on how well our network is performing. If latency is too high then packets will
take a longer amount of time to reach their destination. The more time it takes
for packets to reach their destination, the slower devices, services, and
applications will operate within the network. Likewise, the lower the amount of

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throughput, the lower the number of packets being processed in a specific time
period.

The moment latency gets too high or throughput falls, then our network is going
to grind to a halt. This is the point at which services will start to perform sluggishly
as packets fail to reach their destination at a speed that can sustain the full
operation of our network.

It is important to measure network latency and throughput because it allows us

to check that our network isn’t falling victim to poor performance. There are
many ways that we can measure latency and throughput but the simplest way is
to use a network monitoring tool. This type of tool will be able to tell us when
latency and throughput have reached problematic levels.

Protocol

Protocol is a set of rules and regulations used by devices to communicate over the
network. Just like humans, computers also need rules to ensure successful
communication. If two people start speaking at the same time or in different
languages when no interpreter is present, no meaningful exchange of information
can occur.

Similarly, devices connected on the network need to follow rules defining

situations like when and how to transmit data, when to receive data, how to give
error-free message, etc.

Some common protocols used over the Internet are −

 Transmission Control Protocol

 Internet Protocol
 Point to Point Protocol
 File Transfer Protocol
 Hypertext Transfer Protocol

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 Internet Message Access Protocol

Digital Transmission
Data can be represented either in analog or digital form. The computers used the
digital form to store the information. Therefore, the data needs to be converted
in digital form so that it can be used by a computer.
DIGITAL-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
Digital-to-digital encoding is the representation of digital information by a digital
signal. When binary 1s and 0s generated by the computer are translated into a
sequence of voltage pulses that can be propagated over a wire, this process is
known as digital-to-digital encoding.

Digital-to-digital encoding is divided into three categories:

o Unipolar Encoding
o Polar Encoding
o Bipolar Encoding

Unipolar

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 Digital transmission system sends the voltage pulses over the medium
link such as wire or cable.
 In most types of encoding, one voltage level represents 0, and another
voltage level represents 1.
 The polarity of each pulse determines whether it is positive or negative.
 This type of encoding is known as Unipolar encoding as it uses only one
polarity.
 In Unipolar encoding, the polarity is assigned to the 1 binary state.
 In this, 1s are represented as a positive value and 0s are represented as
a zero value.
 In Unipolar Encoding, '1' is considered as a high voltage and '0' is
considered as a zero voltage.
 Unipolar encoding is simpler and inexpensive to implement.

Unipolar encoding has two problems that make this scheme less desirable:
o DC Component
o Synchronization
Polar
o Polar encoding is an encoding scheme that uses two voltage levels: one is
positive, and another is negative.
o By using two voltage levels, an average voltage level is reduced, and the DC
component problem of unipolar encoding scheme is alleviated.

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NRZ
o NRZ stands for Non-return zero.
o In NRZ encoding, the level of the signal can be represented either positive
or negative.
The two most common methods used in NRZ are:
NRZ-L: In NRZ-L encoding, the level of the signal depends on the type of the bit
that it represents. If a bit is 0 or 1, then their voltages will be positive and negative
respectively. Therefore, we can say that the level of the signal is dependent on
the state of the bit.
NRZ-I: NRZ-I is an inversion of the voltage level that represents 1 bit. In the NRZ-I
encoding scheme, a transition occurs between the positive and negative voltage
that represents 1 bit. In this scheme, 0 bit represents no change and 1 bit
represents a change in voltage level.

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RZ
o RZ stands for Return to zero.
o There must be a signal change for each bit to achieve synchronization.
However, to change with every bit, we need to have three values: positive,
negative and zero.
o RZ is an encoding scheme that provides three values, positive voltage
represents 1, the negative voltage represents 0, and zero voltage
represents none.
o In the RZ scheme, halfway through each interval, the signal returns to zero.
o In RZ scheme, 1 bit is represented by positive-to-zero and 0 bit is
represented by negative-to-zero.

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Disadvantage of RZ:
It performs two signal changes to encode one bit that acquires more bandwidth.
Biphase
 Biphase is an encoding scheme in which signal changes at the middle of
the bit interval but does not return to zero.
Biphase encoding is implemented in two different ways:
Manchester
 It changes the signal at the middle of the bit interval but does not return
to zero for synchronization.
 In Manchester encoding, a negative-to-positive transition represents
binary 1, and positive-to-negative transition represents 0.
 Manchester has the same level of synchronization as RZ scheme except
that it has two levels of amplitude.
Differential Manchester
 It changes the signal at the middle of the bit interval for synchronization,
but the presence or absence of the transition at the beginning of the

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interval determines the bit. A transition means binary 0 and no

transition means binary 1.
 In Manchester Encoding scheme, two signal changes represent 0 and
one signal change represent 1.

Bipolar
 Bipolar encoding scheme represents three voltage levels: positive,
negative, and zero.
 In Bipolar encoding scheme, zero level represents binary 0, and binary 1
is represented by alternating positive and negative voltages.
 If the first 1 bit is represented by positive amplitude, then the second 1
bit is represented by negative voltage, third 1 bit is represented by the
positive amplitude and so on. This alternation can also occur even when
the 1bits are not consecutive.

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Bipolar can be classified as:

AMI
 AMI stands for alternate mark inversion where mark work comes from
telegraphy which means 1. So, it can be redefined as alternate 1
inversion.
 In Bipolar AMI encoding scheme, 0 bit is represented by zero level and 1
bit is represented by alternating positive and negative voltages.
Advantage:
 DC component is zero.
 Sequence of 1s bits are synchronized.
Disadvantage:
 This encoding scheme does not ensure the synchronization of a long
string of 0s bits.
B8ZS
 B8ZS stands for Bipolar 8-Zero Substitution.
 This technique is adopted in North America to provide synchronization
of a long sequence of 0s bits.
 In most of the cases, the functionality of B8ZS is similar to the bipolar
AMI, but the only difference is that it provides the synchronization when
a long sequence of 0s bits occur.
 B8ZS ensures synchronization of a long string of 0s by providing force
artificial signal changes called violations, within 0 string pattern.

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 When eight 0 occurs, then B8ZS implements some changes in 0s string

pattern based on the polarity of the previous 1 bit.
 If the polarity of the previous 1 bit is positive, the eight 0s will be
encoded as zero, zero, zero, positive, negative, zero, negative, positive.

 If the polarity of previous 1 bit is negative, then the eight 0s will be

encoded as zero, zero, zero, negative, positive, zero, positive, negative.
HDB3
 HDB3 stands for High-Density Bipolar 3.
 HDB3 technique was first adopted in Europe and Japan.
 HDB3 technique is designed to provide the synchronization of a long
sequence of 0s bits.
 In the HDB3 technique, the pattern of violation is based on the polarity
of the previous bit.
 When four 0s occur, HDB3 looks at the number of 1s bits occurred since
the last substitution.
 If the number of 1s bits is odd, then the violation is made on the fourth
consecutive of 0. If the polarity of the previous bit is positive, then the
violation is positive. If the polarity of the previous bit is negative, then
the violation is negative.

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If the number of 1s bits since the last substitution is odd.

If the number of 1s bits is even, then the violation is made on the place of the first
and fourth consecutive 0s. If the polarity of the previous bit is positive, then
violations are negative, and if the polarity of the previous bit is negative, then
violations are positive.
If the number of 1s bits since the last substitution is even.

ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
 When an analog signal is digitalized, this is called an analog-to-digital
conversion.
 Suppose human sends a voice in the form of an analog signal, we need
to digitalize the analog signal which is less prone to noise. It requires a

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reduction in the number of values in an analog message so that they can

be represented in the digital stream.
 In analog-to-digital conversion, the information contained in a
continuous wave form is converted in digital pulses.
Techniques for Analog-To-Digital Conversion
PAM
 PAM stands for pulse amplitude modulation.
 PAM is a technique used in analog-to-digital conversion.
 PAM technique takes an analog signal, samples it, and generates a series
of digital pulses based on the result of sampling where sampling means
measuring the amplitude of a signal at equal intervals.
 PAM technique is not useful in data communication as it translates the
original wave form into pulses, but these pulses are not digital. To make
them digital, PAM technique is modified to PCM technique.

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PCM
o PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation.
o PCM technique is used to modify the pulses created by PAM to form a
digital signal. To achieve this, PCM quantizes PAM pulses. Quantization is a
process of assigning integral values in a specific range to sampled instances.
o PCM is made of four separate processes: PAM, quantization, binary
encoding, and digital-to-digital encoding.

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PCM

Analog Transmission
To send the digital data over an analog media, it needs to be converted into
analog signal.There can be two cases according to data formatting.
Bandpass:The filters are used to filter and pass frequencies of interest. A
bandpass is a band of frequencies which can pass the filter.
Low-pass: Low-pass is a filter that passes low frequencies signals.

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When digital data is converted into a bandpass analog signal, it is called digital-to-
analog conversion. When low-pass analog signal is converted into bandpass
analog signal, it is called analog-to-analog conversion.
Digital-to-Analog Conversion
When data from one computer is sent to another via some analog carrier, it is
first converted into analog signals. Analog signals are modified to reflect digital
data.
An analog signal is characterized by its amplitude, frequency, and phase. There
are three kinds of digital-to-analog conversions:
Amplitude Shift Keying
In this conversion technique, the amplitude of analog carrier signal is modified to
reflect binary data.

When binary data represents digit 1, the amplitude is held; otherwise it is set to 0.
Both frequency and phase remain same as in the original carrier signal.
Frequency Shift Keying
In this conversion technique, the frequency of the analog carrier signal is modified
to reflect binary data.

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This technique uses two frequencies, f1 and f2. One of them, for example f1, is
chosen to represent binary digit 1 and the other one is used to represent binary
digit 0. Both amplitude and phase of the carrier wave are kept intact.
Phase Shift Keying
In this conversion scheme, the phase of the original carrier signal is altered to
reflect the binary data.

When a new binary symbol is encountered, the phase of the signal is altered.
Amplitude and frequency of the original carrier signal is kept intact.
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

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QPSK alters the phase to reflect two binary digits at once. This is done in two
different phases. The main stream of binary data is divided equally into two sub-
streams. The serial data is converted in to parallel in both sub-streams and then
each stream is converted to digital signal using NRZ technique. Later, both the
digital signals are merged together.
Analog-to-Analog Conversion
Analog signals are modified to represent analog data. This conversion is also
known as Analog Modulation. Analog modulation is required when bandpass is
used. Analog to analog conversion can be done in three ways:

Amplitude Modulation
In this modulation, the amplitude of the carrier signal is modified to reflect the
analog data.

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Amplitude modulation is implemented by means of a multiplier. The amplitude of

modulating signal (analog data) is multiplied by the amplitude of carrier
frequency, which then reflects analog data.
The frequency and phase of carrier signal remain unchanged.
Frequency Modulation
In this modulation technique, the frequency of the carrier signal is modified to
reflect the change in the voltage levels of the modulating signal (analog data).

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The amplitude and phase of the carrier signal are not altered.
Phase Modulation
In the modulation technique, the phase of carrier signal is modulated in order to
reflect the change in voltage (amplitude) of analog data signal.

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Phase modulation is practically similar to Frequency Modulation, but in Phase

modulation frequency of the carrier signal is not increased. Frequency of carrier is
signal is changed (made dense and sparse) to reflect voltage change in the
amplitude of modulating signal.
Data Encoding Techniques
Encoding is the process of converting the data or a given sequence of characters,
symbols, alphabets etc., into a specified format, for the secured transmission of
data. Decoding is the reverse process of encoding which is to extract the
information from the converted format.
Data Encoding
Encoding is the process of using various patterns of voltage or current levels to
represent 1s and 0s of the digital signals on the transmission link.

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The common types of line encoding are Unipolar, Polar, Bipolar, and Manchester.
Encoding Techniques
The data encoding technique is divided into the following types, depending upon
the type of data conversion.
 Analog data to Analog signals − The modulation techniques such as
Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation and Phase Modulation of
analog signals, fall under this category.
 Analog data to Digital signals − This process can be termed as digitization,
which is done by Pulse Code Modulation PCMPCM. Hence, it is nothing but
digital modulation. As we have already discussed, sampling and
quantization are the important factors in this. Delta Modulation gives a
better output than PCM.
 Digital data to Analog signals − The modulation techniques such as
Amplitude Shift Keying ASKASK, Frequency Shift Keying FSKFSK, Phase Shift
Keying PSKPSK, etc., fall under this category. These will be discussed in
subsequent chapters.
 Digital data to Digital signals − These are in this section. There are several
ways to map digital data to digital signals. Some of them are −
Non Return to Zero NRZNRZ
NRZ Codes has 1 for High voltage level and 0 for Low voltage level. The main
behavior of NRZ codes is that the voltage level remains constant during bit
interval. The end or start of a bit will not be indicated and it will maintain the
same voltage state, if the value of the previous bit and the value of the present bit
are same.
The following figure explains the concept of NRZ coding.

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If the above example is considered, as there is a long sequence of constant

voltage level and the clock synchronization may be lost due to the absence of bit
interval, it becomes difficult for the receiver to differentiate between 0 and 1.
There are two variations in NRZ namely −
NRZ - L NRZ–LEVELNRZ–LEVEL
There is a change in the polarity of the signal, only when the incoming signal
changes from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. It is the same as NRZ, however, the first bit of
the input signal should have a change of polarity.
NRZ - I NRZ–INVERTEDNRZ–INVERTED
If a 1 occurs at the incoming signal, then there occurs a transition at the beginning
of the bit interval. For a 0 at the incoming signal, there is no transition at the
beginning of the bit interval.
NRZ codes has a disadvantage that the synchronization of the transmitter clock
with the receiver clock gets completely disturbed, when there is a string
of 1s and 0s. Hence, a separate clock line needs to be provided.
Bi-phase Encoding
The signal level is checked twice for every bit time, both initially and in the
middle. Hence, the clock rate is double the data transfer rate and thus the

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modulation rate is also doubled. The clock is taken from the signal itself. The
bandwidth required for this coding is greater.
There are two types of Bi-phase Encoding.
 Bi-phase Manchester
 Differential Manchester
Bi-phase Manchester
In this type of coding, the transition is done at the middle of the bit-interval. The
transition for the resultant pulse is from High to Low in the middle of the interval,
for the input bit 1. While the transition is from Low to High for the input bit 0.
Differential Manchester
In this type of coding, there always occurs a transition in the middle of the bit
interval. If there occurs a transition at the beginning of the bit interval, then the
input bit is 0. If no transition occurs at the beginning of the bit interval, then the
input bit is 1.
The following figure illustrates the waveforms of NRZ-L, NRZ-I, Bi-phase
Manchester and Differential Manchester coding for different digital inputs.

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Block Coding
Among the types of block coding, the famous ones are 4B/5B encoding and 8B/6T
encoding. The number of bits are processed in different manners, in both of these
processes.
4B/5B Encoding
In Manchester encoding, to send the data, the clocks with double speed is
required rather than NRZ coding. Here, as the name implies, 4 bits of code is
mapped with 5 bits, with a minimum number of 1 bits in the group.
The clock synchronization problem in NRZ-I encoding is avoided by assigning an
equivalent word of 5 bits in the place of each block of 4 consecutive bits. These 5-
bit words are predetermined in a dictionary.
The basic idea of selecting a 5-bit code is that, it should have one leading 0 and it
should have no more than two trailing 0s. Hence, these words are chosen such
that two transactions take place per block of bits.
8B/6T Encoding
We have used two voltage levels to send a single bit over a single signal. But if we
use more than 3 voltage levels, we can send more bits per signal.
For example, if 6 voltage levels are used to represent 8 bits on a single signal, then
such encoding is termed as 8B/6T encoding. Hence in this method, we have as
many as 729 3636 combinations for signal and 256 2828 combinations for bits.
These are the techniques mostly used for converting digital data into digital
signals by compressing or coding them for reliable transmission of data.
Modulation Techniques

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Communication is the basic attraction of mankind as it gives the knowledge of

what is going on around us. In our daily life, we communicate with many people
and use the entertainment media like television, radio, internet and newspaper to
get ourselves involved. These entertainment media act as a source of
communication. Electronic communication comprises TV, radio, internet,
etc. When we want to transmit a signal from one location to another, we have to
strengthen the signal. After undergoing strenghthening process the signal travels
to a long distance. This is called as modulation, and this article gives an overview
of the modulation and types of modulation techniques.
Communication is nothing but, the process of exchanging (two way
communication) or passing (one way communication) information from one
person to another. The basic electronic communication system consists of these
components: transmitter, receiver and communication channel.

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Communication System
A transmitter is a group of electronic circuits designed to convert the information
into a signal for transmission over a given communication medium.
A receiver is a group of electronic circuits designed to convert the signal back to
the original information.
The communication channel is the medium which is designed to transmit the
electronic signal from one place to another.
What is Modulation?
Modulation is nothing but, a carrier signal that varies in accordance with the
message signal. Modulation technique is used to change the signal characteristics.
Basically, the modulation is of following two types:

Modulation Techniques

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 Analog Modulation
 Digital Modulation
Analog Modulation
In analog modulation, analog signal (sinusoidal signal) is used as a carrier signal
that modulates the message signal or data signal. The general function Sinusoidal
wave’s is shown in the figure below, in which, three parameters can be altered to
get modulation – they are amplitude, frequency and phase; so, the types of
analog modulation are:

Analog Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Frequency Modulation (FM)
 Phase Modulation (PM)
Amplitude Modulation
Amplitude modulation was developed in the beginning of the 20th century. It was
the earliest modulation technique used to transmit voice by radio. This type of
modulation technique is used in electronic communication. In this modulation,
the amplitude of the carrier signal varies in accordance with the message signal,
and other factors like phase and frequency remain constant.
The modulated signal is shown in the below figure, and its spectrum consists of
the lower frequency band, upper frequency band and carrier frequency
components. This type of modulation requires more power and greater

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bandwidth; filtering is very difficult. Amplitude modulation is used in computer

modems, VHF aircraft radio, and in portable two-way radio
Frequency Modulation
In this type of modulation, the frequency of the carrier signal varies in accordance
with the message signal, and other parameters like amplitude and phase remain
constant. Frequency modulation is used in different applications like radar, radio
and telemetry, seismic prospecting and monitoring newborns for seizures via EEG,
etc.
This type of modulation is commonly used for broadcasting music and speech,
magnetic tape recording systems, two way radio systems and video transmission
systems. When noise occurs naturally in radio systems, frequency modulation
with sufficient bandwidth provides an advantage in cancelling the noise.
Phase Modulation
In this type of modulation, the phase of the carrier signal varies in accordance
with the message signal. When the phase of the signal is changed, then it affects
the frequency. So, for this reason, this modulation is also comes under the
frequency modulation.
Generally, phase modulation is used for transmitting waves. It is an essential part
of many digital transmission coding schemes that underlie a wide range of
technologies like GSM, WiFi, and satellite television. This type of modulation is
used for signal generation in al synthesizers, such as the Yamaha DX7 to
implement FM synthesis.

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Types of Analog Modulation

Therefore, Analog modulation includes AM, FM and PM and these are more
sensitive to noise. If noise enters into a system, it persists and gets carried up to
the end receiver. So, this drawback can be overcome by the digital modulation
technique.
Digital Modulation
For a better quality and efficient communication, digital modulation technique is
employed. The main advantages of the digital modulation over analog modulation
include available bandwidth , high noise immunity and permissible power. In
digital modulation, a message signal is converted from analog to digital message,
and then modulated by using a carrier wave.

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Digital Modulation
The carrier wave is switched on and off to create pulses such that the signal is
modulated. Similar to the analog, in this system, the type of the digital
modulation is decided by the variation of the carrier wave parameters like
amplitude, phase and frequency.
The most important digital modulation techniques are based on keying such as
Amplitude Shift Keying, Frequency Shift Keying, Phase Shift Keying, Differential
Phase Shift Keying, Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, Minimum Shift Keying,
Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, etc.,
as shown in the figure.
In an Amplitude shift keying, the amplitude of the carrier wave changes based on
the message signal or on the base-band signal, which is in digital format. It is
sensitive to noise and used for low-band requirements.
In frequency shift keying, the frequency of the carrier wave is varied for each
symbol in the digital data. It needs larger bandwidths as shown in the figure.
Similarly, the phase shift keying changes the phase of the carrier for each symbol
and it is less sensitive to noise.

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Types of Digital Modulation

Multiplexing
Multiplexing is a technique used to combine and send the multiple data streams
over a single medium. The process of combining the data streams is known as
multiplexing and hardware used for multiplexing is known as a multiplexer.
Multiplexing is achieved by using a device called Multiplexer (MUX) that combines
n input lines to generate a single output line. Multiplexing follows many-to-one,
i.e., n input lines and one output line.
Demultiplexing is achieved by using a device called Demultiplexer (DEMUX)
available at the receiving end. DEMUX separates a signal into its component
signals (one input and n outputs). Therefore, we can say that demultiplexing
follows the one-to-many approach.
Why Multiplexing?
 The transmission medium is used to send the signal from sender to
receiver. The medium can only have one signal at a time.

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 If there are multiple signals to share one medium, then the medium
must be divided in such a way that each signal is given some portion of
the available bandwidth. For example: If there are 10 signals and
bandwidth of medium is100 units, then the 10 unit is shared by each
signal.
 When multiple signals share the common medium, there is a possibility
of collision. Multiplexing concept is used to avoid such collision.
 Transmission services are very expensive.
History of Multiplexing
 Multiplexing technique is widely used in telecommunications in which
several telephone calls are carried through a single wire.
 Multiplexing originated in telegraphy in the early 1870s and is now
widely used in communication.
 George Owen Squier developed the telephone carrier multiplexing in
1910.
Concept of Multiplexing

 The 'n' input lines are transmitted through a multiplexer and multiplexer
combines the signals to form a composite signal.
 The composite signal is passed through a Demultiplexer and
demultiplexer separates a signal to component signals and transfers
them to their respective destinations.
Advantages of Multiplexing:
 More than one signal can be sent over a single medium.
 The bandwidth of a medium can be utilized effectively.
Multiplexing Techniques

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Multiplexing techniques can be classified as:

Frequency-division Multiplexing (FDM)

o It is an analog technique.
o Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique in which the available
bandwidth of a single transmission medium is subdivided into several
channels.

 In the above diagram, a single transmission medium is subdivided into

several frequency channels, and each frequency channel is given to
different devices. Device 1 has a frequency channel of range from 1 to 5.
 The input signals are translated into frequency bands by using
modulation techniques, and they are combined by a multiplexer to form
a composite signal.
 The main aim of the FDM is to subdivide the available bandwidth into
different frequency channels and allocate them to different devices.
 Using the modulation technique, the input signals are transmitted into
frequency bands and then combined to form a composite signal.

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 The carriers which are used for modulating the signals are known
as sub-carriers. They are represented as f1,f2..fn.
 FDM is mainly used in radio broadcasts and TV networks.

Advantages Of FDM:
 FDM is used for analog signals.
 FDM process is very simple and easy modulation.
 A Large number of signals can be sent through an FDM simultaneously.
 It does not require any synchronization between sender and receiver.
Disadvantages Of FDM:
 FDM technique is used only when low-speed channels are required.
 It suffers the problem of crosstalk.
 A Large number of modulators are required.
 It requires a high bandwidth channel.
Applications Of FDM:
 FDM is commonly used in TV networks.
 It is used in FM and AM broadcasting. Each FM radio station has
different frequencies, and they are multiplexed to form a composite
signal. The multiplexed signal is transmitted in the air.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

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 Wavelength Division Multiplexing is same as FDM except that the optical

signals are transmitted through the fibre optic cable.
 WDM is used on fibre optics to increase the capacity of a single fibre.
 It is used to utilize the high data rate capability of fibre optic cable.
 It is an analog multiplexing technique.
 Optical signals from different source are combined to form a wider band
of light with the help of multiplexer.
 At the receiving end, demultiplexer separates the signals to transmit
them to their respective destinations.
 Multiplexing and Demultiplexing can be achieved by using a prism.
 Prism can perform a role of multiplexer by combining the various optical
signals to form a composite signal, and the composite signal is
transmitted through a fibre optical cable.
 Prism also performs a reverse operation, i.e., demultiplexing the signal.

Time Division Multiplexing

 It is a digital technique.

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 In Frequency Division Multiplexing Technique, all signals operate at the

same time with different frequency, but in case of Time Division
Multiplexing technique, all signals operate at the same frequency with
different time.
 In Time Division Multiplexing technique, the total time available in the
channel is distributed among different users. Therefore, each user is
allocated with different time interval known as a Time slot at which data
is to be transmitted by the sender.
 A user takes control of the channel for a fixed amount of time.
 In Time Division Multiplexing technique, data is not transmitted
simultaneously rather the data is transmitted one-by-one.
 In TDM, the signal is transmitted in the form of frames. Frames contain a
cycle of time slots in which each frame contains one or more slots
dedicated to each user.
 It can be used to multiplex both digital and analog signals but mainly
used to multiplex digital signals.
There are two types of TDM:
 Synchronous TDM
 Asynchronous TDM
Synchronous TDM
 A Synchronous TDM is a technique in which time slot is preassigned to
every device.
 In Synchronous TDM, each device is given some time slot irrespective of
the fact that the device contains the data or not.
 If the device does not have any data, then the slot will remain empty.
 In Synchronous TDM, signals are sent in the form of frames. Time slots
are organized in the form of frames. If a device does not have data for a
particular time slot, then the empty slot will be transmitted.
 The most popular Synchronous TDM are T-1 multiplexing, ISDN
multiplexing, and SONET multiplexing.
 If there are n devices, then there are n slots.

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Concept Of Synchronous TDM

In the above figure, the Synchronous TDM technique is implemented. Each device
is allocated with some time slot. The time slots are transmitted irrespective of
whether the sender has data to send or not.
Disadvantages Of Synchronous TDM:
o The capacity of the channel is not fully utilized as the empty slots are also
transmitted which is having no data. In the above figure, the first frame is
completely filled, but in the last two frames, some slots are empty.
Therefore, we can say that the capacity of the channel is not utilized
efficiently.

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o The speed of the transmission medium should be greater than the total
speed of the input lines. An alternative approach to the Synchronous TDM
is Asynchronous Time Division Multiplexing.
Asynchronous TDM
 An asynchronous TDM is also known as Statistical TDM.
 An asynchronous TDM is a technique in which time slots are not fixed as in
the case of Synchronous TDM. Time slots are allocated to only those
devices which have the data to send. Therefore, we can say that
Asynchronous Time Division multiplexor transmits only the data from active
workstations.
 An asynchronous TDM technique dynamically allocates the time slots to the
devices.
 In Asynchronous TDM, total speed of the input lines can be greater than
the capacity of the channel.
 Asynchronous Time Division multiplexor accepts the incoming data streams
and creates a frame that contains only data with no empty slots.
 In Asynchronous TDM, each slot contains an address part that identifies the
source of the data.

 The difference between Asynchronous TDM and Synchronous TDM is that

many slots in Synchronous TDM are unutilized, but in Asynchronous TDM,
slots are fully utilized. This leads to the smaller transmission time and
efficient utilization of the capacity of the channel.
 In Synchronous TDM, if there are n sending devices, then there are n time
slots. In Asynchronous TDM, if there are n sending devices, then there are
m time slots where m is less than n (m<n).
 The number of slots in a frame depends on the statistical analysis of the
number of input lines.
Concept Of Asynchronous TDM

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In the above diagram, there are 4 devices, but only two devices are sending the
data, i.e., A and C. Therefore, the data of A and C are only transmitted through
the transmission line.
Frame of above diagram can be represented as:

The above figure shows that the data part contains the address to determine the
source of the data.
What is Transmission media?
o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the
information from the sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted through
the electromagnetic signals.
o The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the information
in the form of bits through LAN(Local Area Network).

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o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data

communication.
o In a copper-based network, the bits in the form of electrical signals.
o In a fibre based network, the bits in the form of light pulses.
o In OSI(Open System Interconnection) phase, transmission media supports
the Layer 1. Therefore, it is considered to be as a Layer 1 component.
o The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fibre optics,
atmosphere, water, and vacuum.
o The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by the
characteristics of medium and signal.
o Transmission media is of two types are wired media and wireless media. In
wired media, medium characteristics are more important whereas, in
wireless media, signal characteristics are more important.
o Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth,
delay, cost and ease of installation and maintenance.
o The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI reference
model, i.e., Physical layer.
Some factors need to be considered for designing the transmission media:
o Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the
bandwidth of a medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
o Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to the
transmitted one due to the transmission impairment. The quality of the
signals will get destroyed due to transmission impairment.
o Interference: An interference is defined as the process of disrupting a signal
when it travels over a communication medium on the addition of some
unwanted signal.
Causes Of Transmission Impairment:

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o Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of energy, i.e., the strength of the
signal decreases with increasing the distance which causes the loss of
energy.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of the
signal. This type of distortion is examined from different signals having
different frequencies. Each frequency component has its own propagation
speed, so they reach at a different time which leads to the delay distortion.
o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission medium, some unwanted
signal is added to it which creates the noise.
Classification Of Transmission Media:

 Guided Transmission Media

 UnGuided Transmission Media

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Guided Media
It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are transmitted. It
is also known as Bounded media.
Types Of Guided media:
Twisted pair:
Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each
other. A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable. The
frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.
A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral
pattern.
The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of
turns per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise
interference.

Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

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An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following are the

categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:
 Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed
data.
 Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
 Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
 Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for
long-distance communication.
 Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.
Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:
 It is cheap.
 Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
 It can be used for high-speed LAN.
Disadvantage:
 This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.
Shielded Twisted Pair
A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire
that allows the higher transmission rate.
Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:
 The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very
low.
 An installation of STP is easy.
 It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
 It has a higher attenuation.
 It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.
Disadvantages
 It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.
 It has a higher attenuation rate.
Coaxial Cable

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 Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example,

TV wire is usually a coaxial cable.
 The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to
each other.
 It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
 The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the
outer conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up
of non-conductive cover that separates the inner conductor from the
outer conductor.
 The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the
copper mesh prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single
signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting
multiple signals simultaneously.
Advantages Of Coaxial cable:
 The data can be transmitted at high speed.
 It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
 It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:
 It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.
 If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.
Fibre Optic

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 Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for

communication.
 Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that
are used to send the data by pulses of light.
 The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold,
electromagnetic interference from other types of wiring.
 Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.
Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

 Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic
known as a core. A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The
more the area of the core, the more light will be transmitted into the
fibre.
 Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main
functionality of the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at
the core interface as to cause the reflection within the core so that the
light waves are transmitted through the fibre.
 Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket.
The main purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb
shock and extra fibre protection.
Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:
 Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as
compared copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as
compared to copper cable.

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 Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This
allows the fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
 Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer
distance as compared to copper cable.
 Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more reliable than the copper
cable as it is immune to any temperature changes while it can cause
obstruct in the connectivity of copper cable.
 Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight
so it can withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.
UnGuided Transmission
 An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without
using any physical medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless
transmission.
 In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic
energy can flow easily.
Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories:
Radio waves
 Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all
the directions of free space.
 Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all
the directions.
 The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
 In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not
aligned, i.e., the wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by
any receiving antenna.
 An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

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Applications Of Radio waves:

 A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and
many receivers.
 An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.
Advantages Of Radio transmission:
 Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile
cellular phones.
 Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
 Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.
Microwaves

Microwaves are of two types:

 Terrestrial microwave

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 Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission
 Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the
focused beam of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave
transmission antenna to another.
 Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the
range from 1GHz to 1000 GHz.
 Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is
to be aligned, i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly
focussed.
 In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to
another antenna which is km away.
 It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted on
the towers are the direct sight of each other.
Characteristics of Microwave:
 Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from
4-6 GHz to 21-23 GHz.
 Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
 Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
 Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer
distance.
 Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by
environmental conditions and antenna size.
Advantages Of Microwave:
 Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.
 It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the
installation of cables.
 Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as
the installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
 Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave
transmission.
Disadvantages of Microwave transmission:

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 Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication. Any

malicious user can catch the signal in the air by using its own antenna.
 Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using
microwave transmission.
 Susceptible to weather condition: A microwave transmission is
susceptible to weather condition. This means that any environmental
change such as rain, wind can distort the signal.
 Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of
microwave transmission.
Satellite Microwave Communication
 A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known
height.
 Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more
flexibility than cable and fibre optic systems.
 We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite
communication.
How Does Satellite work?
The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and it
amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth station.
Advantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:
 The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial
microwave.
 The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance
from the centre of the coverage area.
 Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication
applications.
 It is easy to install.
 It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting,
radio/TV signal broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.
Disadvantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:
 Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher
cost.

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 The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so

that it remains in orbit.
 The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason, another
launch of the satellite has to be planned before it becomes non-
functional.
Infrared
 An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for
communication over short ranges.
 The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
 It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between
two cell phones, TV remote operation, data transfer between a
computer and cell phone resides in the same closed area.
Characteristics Of Infrared:
 It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
 Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared
communication in one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
 An infrared communication provides better security with minimum
interference.
 Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun
rays will interfere with the infrared waves.
Broadband and Baseband Transmission

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The baseband and broadband are the types of signalling techniques. These
terminologies were developed to categorise different types of signals depending
on particular kind of signal formats or modulation technique.
The prior difference between baseband transmission and broadband transmission
is that in the baseband transmission the whole bandwidth of the cable is utilized
by a single signal. Conversely, in the broadband transmission, multiple signals are
sent on multiple frequencies simultaneously using a single channel.
Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR BASEBAND

BROADBAND TRANSMISSION
COMPARISON TRANSMISSION

Type of signalling Digital Analog

used

Application Work well with bus Used with a bus as well as tree

topology. topology.

Encoding Used Manchester and PSK encoding.

Differential Manchester

encoding.

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BASIS FOR BASEBAND

BROADBAND TRANSMISSION
COMPARISON TRANSMISSION

Transmission Bidirectional Unidirectional

Signal range Signals can be travelled Signals can be travelled over

over short distances long distances without being

attenuated.

Broadband
Broadband system use modulation techniques to reduce the effect of noise in the
environment. Broadband transmission employs multiple channel unidirectional
transmission using combination of phase and amplitude modulation.
The Broadband transmission employs analog signals which include optical or
electromagnetic wave form of signal. The signals are sent into multiple
frequencies permitting multiple signals to be sent simultaneously. Frequency
division multiplexing is possible in which the frequency spectrum is divided into
multiple sections of bandwidth. The distinct channels can support different types
of signals of varying frequency ranges to travel simultaneously (at the same
instance).
The signals propagated at any point are unidirectional in nature, in simple words
the signal can be travelled at only one direction, unlike baseband transmission. It
requires two data path that are connected at a point in the network refer to as
headend. The first path is used for signal transmission from the station to the
headend. And the other path is used for receiving propagated signals.

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Baseband
Baseband is a digital signal is transmitted on the medium using one of the signal
codes like NRZ, RZ Manchester biphase-M code etc. is called baseband
transmission.
Baseband transmission uses whole frequency spectrum of the medium for the
transmission. That is the reason frequency division multiplexing cannot be used in
the transmission but time division multiplexing is used in this transmission as in
TDM the link is not divided into multiple channels instead it provides each input
signal with a time slot, in which the signal utilize whole bandwidth for a given
time slot. The signals are carried by wires in the form of electrical pulse.
Signals transmitted at point propagated in both the directions hence it is
bidirectional. The expansion of baseband signal is limited to shorter distances
because at high frequency the attenuation of the signal is most strong and the
pulse blur out, causing the large distance communication completely impractical.
These are following differences between Broadband and Baseband transmission.
Baseband transmission –
1. Digital signalling.
2. Frequency division multiplexing is not pssible.
3. Baseband is bi-directional transmission.
4. Short distance signal travelling.
5. Entire bandwidth is for single signal transmission.
6. Example: Ethernet is using Basebands for LAN.
Broadband transmission –
1. Analog signalling.
2. Transmission of data is unidirectional.
3. Signal travelling distance is long.
4. Frequency division multiplexing possible.

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5. Simultaneous transmission of multiple signals over different frequencies.

6. Example : Used to transmit cable TV to premise
Key Differences Between Baseband and Broadband Transmission
1. Baseband transmission utilizes digital signalling while broadband
transmission uses analog signalling.
2. Bus and tree topologies, both work well with the broadband transmission.
On the other hand, for the baseband transmission bus topology is suitable.
3. Baseband involves manchester and differential manchester encoding. In
contrast, broadband does not make use of any digital encoding instead it
uses PSK (Phase shift keying) encoding.
4. The signals can be travelled in both the direction in baseband transmission
whereas in broadband transmission the signals can travel in only one
direction.
5. In baseband transmission, the signals cover shorter distances because at
higher frequencies the attenuation is most pronounced which make a signal
to travel short distances without reducing its power. As against, in
broadband signals, the signals can be travelled at longer distances.
Transmission Errors
There are many reasons such as noise, cross-talk etc., which may help data to get
corrupted during transmission. The upper layers work on some generalized view
of network architecture and are not aware of actual hardware data
processing.Hence, the upper layers expect error-free transmission between the
systems. Most of the applications would not function expectedly if they receive
erroneous data. Applications such as voice and video may not be that affected
and with some errors they may still function well.
Data-link layer uses some error control mechanism to ensure that frames (data bit
streams) are transmitted with certain level of accuracy. But to understand how
errors is controlled, it is essential to know what types of errors may occur.
Types of Errors

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There may be three types of errors:

Single bit error

In a frame, there is only one bit, anywhere though, which is corrupt.

Multiple bits error

Frame is received with more than one bits in corrupted state.

Burst error

Frame contains more than1 consecutive bits corrupted.

Error control mechanism may involve two possible ways:
 Error detection
 Error correction
Error Detection
Errors in the received frames are detected by means of Parity Check and Cyclic
Redundancy Check (CRC). In both cases, few extra bits are sent along with actual
data to confirm that bits received at other end are same as they were sent. If the
counter-check at receiver’ end fails, the bits are considered corrupted.
Parity Check
One extra bit is sent along with the original bits to make number of 1s either even
in case of even parity, or odd in case of odd parity.

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The sender while creating a frame counts the number of 1s in it. For example, if
even parity is used and number of 1s is even then one bit with value 0 is added.
This way number of 1s remains even.If the number of 1s is odd, to make it even a
bit with value 1 is added.

The receiver simply counts the number of 1s in a frame. If the count of 1s is even
and even parity is used, the frame is considered to be not-corrupted and is
accepted. If the count of 1s is odd and odd parity is used, the frame is still not
corrupted.
If a single bit flips in transit, the receiver can detect it by counting the number of
1s. But when more than one bits are erro neous, then it is very hard for the
receiver to detect the error.
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
CRC is a different approach to detect if the received frame contains valid data.
This technique involves binary division of the data bits being sent. The divisor is
generated using polynomials. The sender performs a division operation on the
bits being sent and calculates the remainder. Before sending the actual bits, the
sender adds the remainder at the end of the actual bits. Actual data bits plus the
remainder is called a codeword. The sender transmits data bits as codewords.

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At the other end, the receiver performs division operation on codewords using
the same CRC divisor. If the remainder contains all zeros the data bits are
accepted, otherwise it is considered as there some data corruption occurred in
transit.
Error Correction
In the digital world, error correction can be done in two ways:
Backward Error Correction When the receiver detects an error in the data
received, it requests back the sender to retransmit the data unit.
Feedback or (backward) error control Along with each character, little additional
information is added only for error detection. The receiver performs no error
correction. If the received data contains error, then the entire data is
retransmitted. Hence, the feedback techniques perform error detection and
retransmission.
Forward Error Correction When the receiver detects some error in the data
received, it executes error-correcting code, which helps it to auto-recover and to
correct some kinds of errors.

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Forward error control Additional redundant information is transmitted along with

the useful data. Hence, the receiver not only detects the error, but also
determines the location of the error in the data. This method is not widely used,
because of the number of additional redundant information.
The first one, Backward Error Correction, is simple and can only be efficiently used
where retransmitting is not expensive. For example, fiber optics. But in case of
wireless transmission retransmitting may cost too much. In the latter case,
Forward Error Correction is used.
To correct the error in data frame, the receiver must know exactly which bit in the
frame is corrupted. To locate the bit in error, redundant bits are used as parity
bits for error detection.For example, we take ASCII words (7 bits data), then there
could be 8 kind of information we need: first seven bits to tell us which bit is error
and one more bit to tell that there is no error.
For m data bits, r redundant bits are used. r bits can provide 2r combinations of
information. In m+r bit codeword, there is possibility that the r bits themselves
may get corrupted. So the number of r bits used must inform about m+r bit
locations plus no-error information, i.e. m+r+1.

Computer Network
A computer network is a set of devices connected through links. A node can be
computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending or receiving the data.
The links connecting the nodes are known as communication channels.
 Computer Network is a group of computers connected with each other
through wires, optical fibres or optical links so that various devices can
interact with each other through a network.
 The aim of the computer network is the sharing of resources among various
devices.
 In the case of computer network technology, there are several types of
networks that vary from simple to complex level.
Computer Network uses distributed processing in which task is divided among
several computers. Instead, a single computer handles an entire task, each
separate computer handles a subset.
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Following are the advantages of Distributed processing:

 Security: It provides limited interaction that a user can have with the entire
system. For example, a bank allows the users to access their own accounts
through an ATM without allowing them to access the bank's entire
database.
 Faster problem solving: Multiple computers can solve the problem faster
than a single machine working alone.
 Security through redundancy: Multiple computers running the same
program at the same time can provide the security through redundancy.
For example, if four computers run the same program and any computer
has a hardware error, then other computers can override it.
Components Of Computer Network:

Major components of a computer network

NIC(National interface card)
NIC is a device that helps the computer to communicate with another device. The
network interface card contains the hardware addresses, the data-link layer
protocol use this address to identify the system on the network so that it
transfers the data to the correct destination.
There are two types of NIC: wireless NIC and wired NIC.

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 Wireless NIC: All the modern laptops use the wireless NIC. In Wireless NIC,
a connection is made using the antenna that employs the radio wave
technology.
 Wired NIC: Cables use the wired NIC to transfer the data over the medium.
Hub
Hub is a central device that splits the network connection into multiple devices.
When computer requests for information from a computer, it sends the request
to the Hub. Hub distributes this request to all the interconnected computers.
Switches
Switch is a networking device that groups all the devices over the network to
transfer the data to another device. A switch is better than Hub as it does not
broadcast the message over the network, i.e., it sends the message to the device
for which it belongs to. Therefore, we can say that switch sends the message
directly from source to the destination.
Cables and connectors
Cable is a transmission media that transmits the communication signals. There
are three types of cables:
 Twisted pair cable: It is a high-speed cable that transmits the data
over 1Gbps or more.
 Coaxial cable: Coaxial cable resembles like a TV installation cable. Coaxial
cable is more expensive than twisted pair cable, but it provides the high
data transmission speed.
 Fibre optic cable: Fibre optic cable is a high-speed cable that transmits the
data using light beams. It provides high data transmission speed as
compared to other cables. It is more expensive as compared to other
cables, so it is installed at the government level.
Router
Router is a device that connects the LAN to the internet. The router is mainly used
to connect the distinct networks or connect the internet to multiple computers.
Modem

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Modem connects the computer to the internet over the existing telephone line. A
modem is not integrated with the computer motherboard. A modem is a separate
part on the PC slot found on the motherboard.
Uses Of Computer Network
 Resource sharing: Resource sharing is the sharing of resources such as
programs, printers, and data among the users on the network without the
requirement of the physical location of the resource and user.
 Server-Client model: Computer networking is used in the server-client
model. A server is a central computer used to store the information and
maintained by the system administrator. Clients are the machines used to
access the information stored in the server remotely.
 Communication medium: Computer network behaves as a communication
medium among the users. For example, a company contains more than one
computer has an email system which the employees use for daily
communication.
 E-commerce: Computer network is also important in businesses. We can do
the business over the internet. For example, amazon.com is doing their
business over the internet, i.e., they are doing their business over the
internet.
Topology
Topology defines the structure of the network of how all the components are
interconnected to each other. There are two types of topology: physical and
logical topology.
Physical topology is the geometric representation of all the nodes in a network.

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Bus Topology

 The bus topology is designed in such a way that all the stations are
connected through a single cable known as a backbone cable.
 Each node is either connected to the backbone cable by drop cable or
directly connected to the backbone cable.
 When a node wants to send a message over the network, it puts a message
over the network. All the stations available in the network will receive the
message whether it has been addressed or not.
 The bus topology is mainly used in 802.3 (ethernet) and 802.4 standard
networks.
 The configuration of a bus topology is quite simpler as compared to other
topologies.
 The backbone cable is considered as a "single lane" through which the
message is broadcast to all the stations.
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 The most common access method of the bus topologies is CSMA (Carrier
Sense Multiple Access).
CSMA: It is a media access control used to control the data flow so that data
integrity is maintained, i.e., the packets do not get lost. There are two alternative
ways of handling the problems that occur when two nodes send the messages
simultaneously.
o CSMA CD: CSMA CD (Collision detection) is an access method used to
detect the collision. Once the collision is detected, the sender will stop
transmitting the data. Therefore, it works on "recovery after the collision".
o CSMA CA: CSMA CA (Collision Avoidance) is an access method used to
avoid the collision by checking whether the transmission media is busy or
not. If busy, then the sender waits until the media becomes idle. This
technique effectively reduces the possibility of the collision. It does not
work on "recovery after the collision".
Advantages of Bus topology:
o Low-cost cable: In bus topology, nodes are directly connected to the cable
without passing through a hub. Therefore, the initial cost of installation is
low.
o Moderate data speeds: Coaxial or twisted pair cables are mainly used in
bus-based networks that support upto 10 Mbps.
o Familiar technology: Bus topology is a familiar technology as the
installation and troubleshooting techniques are well known, and hardware
components are easily available.
o Limited failure: A failure in one node will not have any effect on other
nodes.
Disadvantages of Bus topology:
o Extensive cabling: A bus topology is quite simpler, but still it requires a lot
of cabling.

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o Difficult troubleshooting: It requires specialized test equipment to

determine the cable faults. If any fault occurs in the cable, then it would
disrupt the communication for all the nodes.
o Signal interference: If two nodes send the messages simultaneously, then
the signals of both the nodes collide with each other.
o Reconfiguration difficult: Adding new devices to the network would slow
down the network.
o Attenuation: Attenuation is a loss of signal leads to communication issues.
Repeaters are used to regenerate the signal.
Ring Topology

o Ring topology is like a bus topology, but with connected ends.

o The node that receives the message from the previous computer will
retransmit to the next node.
o The data flows in one direction, i.e., it is unidirectional.
o The data flows in a single loop continuously known as an endless loop.
o It has no terminated ends, i.e., each node is connected to other node and
having no termination point.
o The data in a ring topology flow in a clockwise direction.

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o The most common access method of the ring topology is token passing.
o Token passing: It is a network access method in which token is
passed from one node to another node.
o Token: It is a frame that circulates around the network.
Working of Token passing
o A token moves around the network, and it is passed from computer to
computer until it reaches the destination.
o The sender modifies the token by putting the address along with the data.
o The data is passed from one device to another device until the destination
address matches. Once the token received by the destination device, then
it sends the acknowledgment to the sender.
o In a ring topology, a token is used as a carrier.
Advantages of Ring topology:
o Network Management: Faulty devices can be removed from the network
without bringing the network down.
o Product availability: Many hardware and software tools for network
operation and monitoring are available.
o Cost: Twisted pair cabling is inexpensive and easily available. Therefore, the
installation cost is very low.
o Reliable: It is a more reliable network because the communication system
is not dependent on the single host computer.
Disadvantages of Ring topology:
o Difficult troubleshooting: It requires specialized test equipment to
determine the cable faults. If any fault occurs in the cable, then it would
disrupt the communication for all the nodes.
o Failure: The breakdown in one station leads to the failure of the overall
network.

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o Reconfiguration difficult: Adding new devices to the network would slow

down the network.
o Delay: Communication delay is directly proportional to the number of
nodes. Adding new devices increases the communication delay.
Star Topology

o Star topology is an arrangement of the network in which every node is

connected to the central hub, switch or a central computer.
o The central computer is known as a server, and the peripheral devices
attached to the server are known as clients.
o Coaxial cable or RJ-45 cables are used to connect the computers.
o Hubs or Switches are mainly used as connection devices in a physical star
topology.
o Star topology is the most popular topology in network implementation.
Advantages of Star topology
o Efficient troubleshooting: Troubleshooting is quite efficient in a star
topology as compared to bus topology. In a bus topology, the manager has
to inspect the kilometers of cable. In a star topology, all the stations are
connected to the centralized network. Therefore, the network
administrator has to go to the single station to troubleshoot the problem.

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o Network control: Complex network control features can be easily

implemented in the star topology. Any changes made in the star topology
are automatically accommodated.
o Limited failure: As each station is connected to the central hub with its own
cable, therefore failure in one cable will not affect the entire network.
o Familiar technology: Star topology is a familiar technology as its tools are
cost-effective.
o Easily expandable: It is easily expandable as new stations can be added to
the open ports on the hub.
o Cost effective: Star topology networks are cost-effective as it uses
inexpensive coaxial cable.
o High data speeds: It supports a bandwidth of approx 100Mbps. Ethernet
100BaseT is one of the most popular Star topology networks.
Disadvantages of Star topology
o A Central point of failure: If the central hub or switch goes down, then all
the connected nodes will not be able to communicate with each other.
o Cable: Sometimes cable routing becomes difficult when a significant
amount of routing is required.
Tree topology

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o Tree topology combines the characteristics of bus topology and star

topology.
o A tree topology is a type of structure in which all the computers are
connected with each other in hierarchical fashion.
o The top-most node in tree topology is known as a root node, and all other
nodes are the descendants of the root node.
o There is only one path exists between two nodes for the data transmission.
Thus, it forms a parent-child hierarchy.
Advantages of Tree topology
o Support for broadband transmission: Tree topology is mainly used to
provide broadband transmission, i.e., signals are sent over long distances
without being attenuated.
o Easily expandable: We can add the new device to the existing network.
Therefore, we can say that tree topology is easily expandable.
o Easily manageable: In tree topology, the whole network is divided into
segments known as star networks which can be easily managed and
maintained.
o Error detection: Error detection and error correction are very easy in a tree
topology.
o Limited failure: The breakdown in one station does not affect the entire
network.
o Point-to-point wiring: It has point-to-point wiring for individual segments.
Disadvantages of Tree topology
 Difficult troubleshooting: If any fault occurs in the node, then it
becomes difficult to troubleshoot the problem.
 High cost: Devices required for broadband transmission are very costly.
 Failure: A tree topology mainly relies on main bus cable and failure in
main bus cable will damage the overall network.

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 Reconfiguration difficult: If new devices are added, then it becomes

difficult to reconfigure.
Mesh topology

o Mesh technology is an arrangement of the network in which computers are

interconnected with each other through various redundant connections.
o There are multiple paths from one computer to another computer.
o It does not contain the switch, hub or any central computer which acts as a
central point of communication.
o The Internet is an example of the mesh topology.
o Mesh topology is mainly used for WAN implementations where
communication failures are a critical concern.
o Mesh topology is mainly used for wireless networks.
o Mesh topology can be formed by using the formula:
Number of cables = (n*(n-1))/2;
Where n is the number of nodes that represents the network.
Mesh topology is divided into two categories:
 Fully connected mesh topology
 Partially connected mesh topology

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
 Full Mesh Topology: In a full mesh topology, each computer is connected
to all the computers available in the network.
 Partial Mesh Topology: In a partial mesh topology, not all but certain
computers are connected to those computers with which they
communicate frequently.
Advantages of Mesh topology:
Reliable: The mesh topology networks are very reliable as if any link breakdown
will not affect the communication between connected computers.
Fast Communication: Communication is very fast between the nodes.
Easier Reconfiguration: Adding new devices would not disrupt the
communication between other devices.
Disadvantages of Mesh topology
 Cost: A mesh topology contains a large number of connected devices
such as a router and more transmission media than other topologies.
 Management: Mesh topology networks are very large and very difficult
to maintain and manage. If the network is not monitored carefully, then
the communication link failure goes undetected.
 Efficiency: In this topology, redundant connections are high that reduces
the efficiency of the network.
Hybrid Topology

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o The combination of various different topologies is known as Hybrid

topology.
o A Hybrid topology is a connection between different links and nodes to
transfer the data.
o When two or more different topologies are combined together is termed as
Hybrid topology and if similar topologies are connected with each other will
not result in Hybrid topology. For example, if there exist a ring topology in
one branch of ICICI bank and bus topology in another branch of ICICI bank,
connecting these two topologies will result in Hybrid topology.
Advantages of Hybrid Topology
 Reliable: If a fault occurs in any part of the network will not affect the
functioning of the rest of the network.

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 Scalable: Size of the network can be easily expanded by adding new

devices without affecting the functionality of the existing network.
 Flexible: This topology is very flexible as it can be designed according to
the requirements of the organization.
 Effective: Hybrid topology is very effective as it can be designed in such
a way that the strength of the network is maximized and weakness of
the network is minimized.
Disadvantages of Hybrid topology
 Complex design: The major drawback of the Hybrid topology is the design
of the Hybrid network. It is very difficult to design the architecture of the
Hybrid network.
 Costly Hub: The Hubs used in the Hybrid topology are very expensive as
these hubs are different from usual Hubs used in other topologies.
 Costly infrastructure: The infrastructure cost is very high as a hybrid
network requires a lot of cabling, network devices, etc.
Types of Computer Networks: LAN, MAN, WAN, VPN
There are various types of computer networks available. We can categorize them
according to their size as well as their purpose.
The size of a network should be expressed by the geographic area and number of
computers, which are a part of their networks. It includes devices housed in a
single room to millions of devices spread across the world.

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Some of the most popular network types are:

 PAN
 LAN
 MAN
 WAN
PAN (Personal Area Network)
PAN is a computer network formed around a person. It generally consists of a
computer, mobile, or personal digital assistant. PAN can be used for establishing
communication among these personal devices for connecting to a digital network
and the internet.
Characteristics of PAN
 It is mostly personal devices network equipped within a limited area.
 Allows you to handle the interconnection of IT devices at the
surrounding of a single user.
 PAN includes mobile devices, tablet, and laptop.
 It can be wirelessly connected to the internet called WPAN.
 Appliances use for PAN: cordless mice, keyboards, and Bluetooth
systems.
Advantages of PAN
Here, are important pros/benefits of using PAN network:
 PAN networks are relatively secure and safe
 It offers only short-range solution up to ten meters
 Strictly restricted to a small area
Disadvantages of PAN
Here are important cons/ drawback of using PAN network:
 It may establish a bad connection to other networks at the same radio
bands.
 Distance limits.

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LAN(Local Area Network)

A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computer and peripheral devices which
are connected in a limited area such as school, laboratory, home, and office
building. It is a widely useful network for sharing resources like files, printers,
games, and other application. The simplest type of LAN network is to connect
computers and a printer in someone's home or office. In general, LAN will be used
as one type of transmission medium.
It is a network which consists of less than 5000 interconnected devices across
several buildings.
Characteristics of LAN
Here are important characteristics of a LAN network:
 It is a private network, so an outside regulatory body never controls it.
 LAN operates at a relatively higher speed compared to other WAN systems.
 There are various kinds of media access control methods like token ring and
ethernet.

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Advantages of LAN
Here are pros/benefits of using LAN:
 Computer resources like hard-disks, DVD-ROM, and printers can share local
area networks. This significantly reduces the cost of hardware purchases.
 You can use the same software over the network instead of purchasing the
licensed software for each client in the network.
 Data of all network users can be stored on a single hard disk of the server
computer.
 You can easily transfer data and messages over networked computers.
 It will be easy to manage data at only one place, which makes data more
secure.
 Local Area Network offers the facility to share a single internet connection
among all the LAN users.
Disadvantages of LAN
Here are the important cons/ drawbacks of LAN:
 LAN will indeed save cost because of shared computer resources, but the
initial cost of installing Local Area Networks is quite high.
 The LAN admin can check personal data files of every LAN user, so it does
not offer good privacy.
 Unauthorized users can access critical data of an organization in case LAN
admin is not able to secure centralized data repository.
 Local Area Network requires a constant LAN administration as there are
issues related to software setup and hardware failures
WAN(Wide Area Network)

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WAN (Wide Area Network) is another important computer network that which is
spread across a large geographical area. WAN network system could be a
connection of a LAN which connects with other LAN's using telephone lines and
radio waves. It is mostly limited to an enterprise or an organization.
Characteristics of LAN:
 The software files will be shared among all the users; therefore, all can
access to the latest files.
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 Any organization can form its global integrated network using WAN.
Advantages of WAN
Here are the benefits/ pros of using WAN:
 WAN helps you to cover a larger geographical area. Therefore business
offices situated at longer distances can easily communicate.
 Contains devices like mobile phones, laptop, tablet, computers, gaming
consoles, etc.
 WLAN connections work using radio transmitters and receivers built into
client devices.
Disadvantage of WAN
Here are drawbacks/cons of using WAN:
 The initial setup cost of investment is very high.
 It is difficult to maintain the WAN network. You need skilled technicians
and network administrators.
 There are more errors and issues because of the wide coverage and the use
of different technologies.
 It requires more time to resolve issues because of the involvement of
multiple wired and wireless technologies.
 Offers lower security compared to other types of networks.
MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)

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A Metropolitan Area Network or MAN is consisting of a computer network across

an entire city, college campus, or a small region. This type of network is large than
a LAN, which is mostly limited to a single building or site. Depending upon the
type of configuration, this type of network allows you to cover an area from
several miles to tens of miles.
Characteristics of MAN
Here are important characteristics of the MAN network:
 It mostly covers towns and cities in a maximum 50 km range
 Mostly used medium is optical fibers, cables
 Data rates adequate for distributed computing applications.
Advantages of MAN
Here are pros/benefits of using MAN system:
 It offers fast communication using high-speed carriers, like fiber optic
cables.
 It provides excellent support for an extensive size network and greater
access to WANs.
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 The dual bus in MAN network provides support to transmit data in both
directions concurrently.
 A MAN network mostly includes some areas of a city or an entire city.
Disadvantages of MAN
Here are drawbacks/ cons of using the MAN network:
 You need more cable to establish MAN connection from one place to
another.
 In MAN network it is tough to make the system secure from hackers
Other Types of Networks
Apart from above mentioned here, are some other important types of networks:
 WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)
 Storage Area Network
 System Area Network
 Home Area Network
 POLAN- Passive Optical LAN
 Enterprise private network
 Campus Area Network
 Virtual Area Network
1) WLAN
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) helps you to link single or multiple devices
using wireless communication within a limited area like home, school, or office
building. It gives users an ability to move around within a local coverage area
which may be connected to the network. Today most modern day's WLAN
systems are based on IEEE 802.11 standards.
2) Storage-Area Network (SAN)

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A Storage Area Network is a type of network which allows consolidated, block-

level data storage. It is mainly used to make storage devices, like disk arrays,
optical jukeboxes, and tape libraries.
3) System-Area Network
System Area Network is used for a local network. It offers high-speed connection
in server-to-server and processor-to-processor applications. The computers
connected on a SAN network operate as a single system at quite high speed.
4) Passive Optical Local Area Network
POLAN is a networking technology which helps you to integrate into structured
cabling. It allows you to resolve the issues of supporting Ethernet protocols and
network apps.
POLAN allows you to use optical splitter which helps you to separate an optical
signal from a single-mode optical fiber. It converts this single signal into multiple
signals.
5) Home Area Network (HAN):
A Home Area Network is always built using two or more interconnected
computers to form a local area network (LAN) within the home. For example, in
the United States, about 15 million homes have more than one computer.
This type of network helps computer owners to interconnect with multiple
computers. This network allows sharing files, programs, printers, and other
peripherals.
6) Enterprise Private Network :
Enterprise private network (EPN) networks are build and owned by businesses
that want to securely connect numerous locations in order to share various
computer resources.
7) Campus Area Network (CAN):
A Campus Area Network is made up of an interconnection of LANs within a
specific geographical area. For example, a university campus can be linked with a
variety of campus buildings to connect all the academic departments.

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8) Virtual Private Network:

A VPN is a private network which uses a public network to connect remote sites
or users together. The VPN network uses "virtual" connections routed through
the internet from the enterprise's private network or a third-party VPN service to
the remote site.
It is a free or paid service that keeps our web browsing secure and private over
public WiFi hotspots.
Computer Network Models
Introduction
A communication subsystem is a complex piece of Hardware and software. Early
attempts for implementing the software for such subsystems were based on a
single, complex, unstructured program with many interacting components. The
resultant software was very difficult to test and modify. To overcome such
problem, the ISO has developed a layered approach. In a layered approach,
networking concept is divided into several layers, and each layer is assigned a
particular task. Therefore, we can say that networking tasks depend upon the
layers.
 For data communication to take place and two or more users can
transmit data from one to other, a systematic approach is required. This
approach enables users to communicate and transmit data through
efficient and ordered path. It is implemented using models in computer
networks and are known as computer network models.
 Computer network models are responsible for establishing a connection
among the sender and receiver and transmitting the data in a smooth
manner respectively.
 There are two computer network models i.e. OSI Model and TCP/IP
Model on which the whole data communication process relies.
Layered Architecture
o The main aim of the layered architecture is to divide the design into small
pieces.

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o Each lower layer adds its services to the higher layer to provide a full set of
services to manage communications and run the applications.
o It provides modularity and clear interfaces, i.e., provides interaction
between subsystems.
o It ensures the independence between layers by providing the services from
lower to higher layer without defining how the services are implemented.
Therefore, any modification in a layer will not affect the other layers.
o The number of layers, functions, contents of each layer will vary from
network to network. However, the purpose of each layer is to provide the
service from lower to a higher layer and hiding the details from the layers
of how the services are implemented.
o The basic elements of layered architecture are services, protocols, and
interfaces.
o Service: It is a set of actions that a layer provides to the higher layer.
o Protocol: It defines a set of rules that a layer uses to exchange the
information with peer entity. These rules mainly concern about both
the contents and order of the messages used.
o Interface: It is a way through which the message is transferred from
one layer to another layer.
o In a layer n architecture, layer n on one machine will have a communication
with the layer n on another machine and the rules used in a conversation
are known as a layer-n protocol.
An example of the five-layered architecture.

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o In case of layered architecture, no data is transferred from layer n of one

machine to layer n of another machine. Instead, each layer passes the data
to the layer immediately just below it, until the lowest layer is reached.
o Below layer 1 is the physical medium through which the actual
communication takes place.
o In a layered architecture, unmanageable tasks are divided into several small
and manageable tasks.
o The data is passed from the upper layer to lower layer through an interface.
A Layered architecture provides a clean-cut interface so that minimum
information is shared among different layers. It also ensures that the
implementation of one layer can be easily replaced by another
implementation.
o A set of layers and protocols is known as network architecture.
Why do we require Layered architecture?
o Divide-and-conquer approach: Divide-and-conquer approach makes a
design process in such a way that the unmanageable tasks are divided into

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small and manageable tasks. In short, we can say that this approach
reduces the complexity of the design.
o Modularity: Layered architecture is more modular. Modularity provides the
independence of layers, which is easier to understand and implement.
o Easy to modify: It ensures the independence of layers so that
implementation in one layer can be changed without affecting other layers.
o Easy to test: Each layer of the layered architecture can be analyzed and
tested individually.
 For data communication to take place and two or more users can
transmit data from one to other, a systematic approach is required. This
approach enables users to communicate and transmit data through
efficient and ordered path. It is implemented using models in computer
networks and are known as computer network models.
 Computer network models are responsible for establishing a connection
among the sender and receiver and transmitting the data in a smooth
manner respectively.
 There are two computer network models i.e. OSI Model and TCP/IP
Model on which the whole data communication process relies.

Computer Network Models

OSI Model
o OSI stands for Open System Interconnection is a reference model that
describes how information from a software application in

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one computer moves through a physical medium to the software

application in another computer.
o OSI consists of seven layers, and each layer performs a particular network
function.
o OSI model was developed by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in 1984, and it is now considered as an architectural
model for the inter-computer communications.
o OSI model divides the whole task into seven smaller and manageable tasks.
Each layer is assigned a particular task.
o Each layer is self-contained, so that task assigned to each layer can be
performed independently.
Characteristics of OSI Model:

o The OSI model is divided into two layers: upper layers and lower layers.
o The upper layer of the OSI model mainly deals with the application related
issues, and they are implemented only in the software. The application
layer is closest to the end user. Both the end user and the application layer
interact with the software applications. An upper layer refers to the layer
just above another layer.

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o The lower layer of the OSI model deals with the data transport issues. The
data link layer and the physical layer are implemented in hardware and
software. The physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model and is
closest to the physical medium. The physical layer is mainly responsible for
placing the information on the physical medium.
Functions of the OSI Layers
There are the seven OSI layers. Each layer has different functions. A list of seven
layers are given below:
1. Physical Layer
2. Data-Link Layer
3. Network Layer
4. Transport Layer
5. Session Layer
6. Presentation Layer
7. Application Layer

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Physical layer

o The main functionality of the physical layer is to transmit the individual bits
from one node to another node.
o It is the lowest layer of the OSI model.
o It establishes, maintains and deactivates the physical connection.
o It specifies the mechanical, electrical and procedural network interface
specifications.
Functions of a Physical layer:
o Line Configuration: It defines the way how two or more devices can be
connected physically.
o Data Transmission: It defines the transmission mode whether it is simplex,
half-duplex or full-duplex mode between the two devices on the network.
o Topology: It defines the way how network devices are arranged.
o Signals: It determines the type of the signal used for transmitting the
information.
Data-Link Layer
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o This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data frames.

o It defines the format of the data on the network.
o It provides a reliable and efficient communication between two or more
devices.
o It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each device that
resides on a local network.
o It contains two sub-layers:
o Logical Link Control Layer
o It is responsible for transferring the packets to the Network
layer of the receiver that is receiving.
o It identifies the address of the network layer protocol from the
header.
o It also provides flow control.
o Media Access Control Layer
o A Media access control layer is a link between the Logical Link
Control layer and the network's physical layer.

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o It is used for transferring the packets over the network.

Functions of the Data-link layer
o Framing: The data link layer translates the physical's raw bit stream into
packets known as Frames. The Data link layer adds the header and trailer to
the frame. The header which is added to the frame contains the hardware
destination and source address.

o Physical Addressing: The Data link layer adds a header to the frame that
contains a destination address. The frame is transmitted to the destination
address mentioned in the header.
o Flow Control: Flow control is the main functionality of the Data-link layer. It
is the technique through which the constant data rate is maintained on
both the sides so that no data get corrupted. It ensures that the
transmitting station such as a server with higher processing speed does not
exceed the receiving station, with lower processing speed.
o Error Control: Error control is achieved by adding a calculated value CRC
(Cyclic Redundancy Check) that is placed to the Data link layer's trailer
which is added to the message frame before it is sent to the physical layer.
If any error seems to occurr, then the receiver sends the acknowledgment
for the retransmission of the corrupted frames.
o Access Control: When two or more devices are connected to the same
communication channel, then the data link layer protocols are used to
determine which device has control over the link at a given time.
Network Layer

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o It is a layer 3 that manages device addressing, tracks the location of devices

on the network.
o It determines the best path to move data from source to the destination
based on the network conditions, the priority of service, and other factors.
o The Data link layer is responsible for routing and forwarding the packets.
o Routers are the layer 3 devices, they are specified in this layer and used to
provide the routing services within an internetwork.
o The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as Network layer
protocols. Examples of protocols are IP and Ipv6.
Functions of Network Layer:
o Internetworking: An internetworking is the main responsibility of the
network layer. It provides a logical connection between different devices.
o Addressing: A Network layer adds the source and destination address to
the header of the frame. Addressing is used to identify the device on the
internet.

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o Routing: Routing is the major component of the network layer, and it

determines the best optimal path out of the multiple paths from source to
the destination.
o Packetizing: A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper layer and
converts them into packets. This process is known as Packetizing. It is
achieved by internet protocol (IP).
Transport Layer

o The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are transmitted in

the order in which they are sent and there is no duplication of data.
o The main responsibility of the transport layer is to transfer the data
completely.
o It receives the data from the upper layer and converts them into smaller
units known as segments.
o This layer can be termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a point-to-
point connection between source and destination to deliver the data
reliably.
The two protocols used in this layer are:

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o Transmission Control Protocol

o It is a standard protocol that allows the systems to communicate
over the internet.
o It establishes and maintains a connection between hosts.
o When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the TCP protocol
divides the data into smaller units known as segments. Each segment
travels over the internet using multiple routes, and they arrive in
different orders at the destination. The transmission control protocol
reorders the packets in the correct order at the receiving end.
o User Datagram Protocol
o User Datagram Protocol is a transport layer protocol.
o It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver does not
send any acknowledgment when the packet is received, the sender
does not wait for any acknowledgment. Therefore, this makes a
protocol unreliable.
Functions of Transport Layer:
o Service-point addressing: Computers run several programs simultaneously
due to this reason, the transmission of data from source to the destination
not only from one computer to another computer but also from one
process to another process. The transport layer adds the header that
contains the address known as a service-point address or port address. The
responsibility of the network layer is to transmit the data from one
computer to another computer and the responsibility of the transport layer
is to transmit the message to the correct process.
o Segmentation and reassembly: When the transport layer receives the
message from the upper layer, it divides the message into multiple
segments, and each segment is assigned with a sequence number that
uniquely identifies each segment. When the message has arrived at the
destination, then the transport layer reassembles the message based on
their sequence numbers.

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o Connection control: Transport layer provides two services Connection-

oriented service and connectionless service. A connectionless service treats
each segment as an individual packet, and they all travel in different routes
to reach the destination. A connection-oriented service makes a connection
with the transport layer at the destination machine before delivering the
packets. In connection-oriented service, all the packets travel in the single
route.
o Flow control: The transport layer also responsible for flow control but it is
performed end-to-end rather than across a single link.
o Error control: The transport layer is also responsible for Error control. Error
control is performed end-to-end rather than across the single link. The
sender transport layer ensures that message reach at the destination
without any error.
Session Layer

o It is a layer 3 in the OSI model.

o The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and synchronizes the
interaction between communicating devices.
Functions of Session layer:
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o Dialog control: Session layer acts as a dialog controller that creates a dialog
between two processes or we can say that it allows the communication
between two processes which can be either half-duplex or full-duplex.
o Synchronization: Session layer adds some checkpoints when transmitting
the data in a sequence. If some error occurs in the middle of the
transmission of data, then the transmission will take place again from the
checkpoint. This process is known as Synchronization and recovery.
Presentation Layer

o A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and semantics of

the information exchanged between the two systems.
o It acts as a data translator for a network.
o This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the data from one
presentation format to another format.
o The Presentation layer is also known as the syntax layer.
Functions of Presentation layer:
o Translation: The processes in two systems exchange the information in the
form of character strings, numbers and so on. Different computers use
different encoding methods, the presentation layer handles the
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interoperability between the different encoding methods. It converts the

data from sender-dependent format into a common format and changes
the common format into receiver-dependent format at the receiving end.
o Encryption: Encryption is needed to maintain privacy. Encryption is a
process of converting the sender-transmitted information into another
form and sends the resulting message over the network.
o Compression: Data compression is a process of compressing the data, i.e.,
it reduces the number of bits to be transmitted. Data compression is very
important in multimedia such as text, audio, video.
Application Layer

o An application layer serves as a window for users and application processes

to access network service.
o It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation, etc.
o An application layer is not an application, but it performs the application
layer functions.
o This layer provides the network services to the end-users.
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Functions of Application layer:

o File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer allows
a user to access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the files from a
computer and to manage the files in a remote computer.
o Mail services: An application layer provides the facility for email forwarding
and storage.
o Directory services: An application provides the distributed database sources
and is used to provide that global information about various objects.
What does OSI Protocols mean?
OSI protocols are a family of standards for information exchange. They consist of
a set of rules that should represent a standard for physical connections, cabling,
data formats, transmission models, as well as means to ensure correction of
errors and missing data.
These protocols were developed and designed by the International Organization
of Standardization (ISO). In 1977 the ISO model was introduced, which consisted
of seven different layers. This model has been criticized because of its technicality
and limited features and never met the goal of becoming universal standard.
Each layer of the ISO model has its own protocols and functions. The OSI protocol
stack was later adapted into the TCP/IP stack.
In some networks, protocols are still popular using only the data link and network
layers of the OSI model.
OSI Protocols
The OSI protocol stack works on a hierarchical form, from the hardware physical
layer to the software application layer. There are a total of seven layers. Data and
information are received by each layer from an upper layer.
After the required processing, this layer then passes the information on to the
next lower layer. A header is added to the forwarded message for the
convenience of the next layer. Each header consists of information such as source
and destination addresses, protocol used, sequence number and other flow-
control related data.

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The following are the OSI protocols used in the seven layers of the OSI Model:
Layer 1, the Physical Layer
This layer deals with the hardware of networks such as cabling. It defines the
mechanical and electrical standards of interface devices and the types of cables
used to transmit digital signals (e.g. optical fiber, coaxial cable, wireless, etc.).
The major protocols used by this layer include Bluetooth, PON, OTN,
DSL, IEEE.802.11, IEEE.802.3, L431 and TIA 449.
Layer 2, the Data Link Layer
This layer receives data from the physical layer and compiles it into a transform
form called framing or frame. The principal purpose of this layer is to detect
transfer errors by adding headers to data packets.
The protocols are used by the Data Link Layer include: ARP, CSLIP,
HDLC, IEEE.802.3, PPP, X-25, SLIP, ATM, SDLS and PLIP.
Layer 3, the Network Layer
This is the most important layer of the OSI model, which performs real time
processing and transfers data from nodes to nodes. Routers and switches are the
devices used for this layer that connects the notes in the network to transmit and
control data flow.
The network layer assists the following protocols: Internet Protocol (IPv4),
Internet Protocol (IPv6), IPX, AppleTalk, ICMP, IPSec and IGMP.
Layer 4, the Transport Layer
The transport layer works on two determined communication modes: Connection
oriented and connectionless. This layer transmits data from source to destination
node.
It uses the most important protocols of OSI protocol family, which are:
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), UDP, SPX, DCCP and SCTP.
Layer 5, the Session Layer

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The session layer creates a session between the source and the destination nodes
and terminates sessions on completion of the communication process.
The protocols used are: PPTP, SAP, L2TP and NetBIOS.
Layer 6, the Presentation Layer
The functions of encryption and decryption are defined on this layer. It ensures
that data is transferred in standardized formats by converting data formats into a
format readable by the application layer.
The following are the presentation layer protocols: XDR, TLS, SSL and MIME.
Layer 7, the Application Layer
This layer works at the user end to interact with user applications. QoS (quality of
service), file transfer and email are the major popular services of the application
layer.
This layer uses following protocols: HTTP, SMTP, DHCP, FTP, Telnet, SNMP and
SMPP.
TCP/IP model
o The TCP/IP model was developed prior to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model is not exactly similar to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model consists of five layers: the application layer, transport
layer, network layer, data link layer and physical layer.
o The first four layers provide physical standards, network interface,
internetworking, and transport functions that correspond to the first four
layers of the OSI model and these four layers are represented in TCP/IP
model by a single layer called the application layer.
o TCP/IP is a hierarchical protocol made up of interactive modules, and each
of them provides specific functionality.
Here, hierarchical means that each upper-layer protocol is supported by two or
more lower-level protocols.
Functions of TCP/IP layers:
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Network Access Layer

o A network layer is the lowest layer of the TCP/IP model.
o A network layer is the combination of the Physical layer and Data Link layer
defined in the OSI reference model.
o It defines how the data should be sent physically through the network.
o This layer is mainly responsible for the transmission of the data between
two devices on the same network.
o The functions carried out by this layer are encapsulating the IP datagram
into frames transmitted by the network and mapping of IP addresses into
physical addresses.
o The protocols used by this layer are ethernet, token ring, FDDI, X.25, frame
relay.
Internet Layer
o An internet layer is the second layer of the TCP/IP model.

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o An internet layer is also known as the network layer.

o The main responsibility of the internet layer is to send the packets from any
network, and they arrive at the destination irrespective of the route they
take.
Following are the protocols used in this layer are:
IP Protocol: IP protocol is used in this layer, and it is the most significant part of
the entire TCP/IP suite.
Following are the responsibilities of this protocol:
o IP Addressing: This protocol implements logical host addresses known as IP
addresses. The IP addresses are used by the internet and higher layers to
identify the device and to provide internetwork routing.
o Host-to-host communication: It determines the path through which the
data is to be transmitted.
o Data Encapsulation and Formatting: An IP protocol accepts the data from
the transport layer protocol. An IP protocol ensures that the data is sent
and received securely, it encapsulates the data into message known as IP
datagram.
o Fragmentation and Reassembly: The limit imposed on the size of the IP
datagram by data link layer protocol is known as Maximum Transmission
unit (MTU). If the size of IP datagram is greater than the MTU unit, then the
IP protocol splits the datagram into smaller units so that they can travel
over the local network. Fragmentation can be done by the sender or
intermediate router. At the receiver side, all the fragments are reassembled
to form an original message.
o Routing: When IP datagram is sent over the same local network such as
LAN, MAN, WAN, it is known as direct delivery. When source and
destination are on the distant network, then the IP datagram is sent
indirectly. This can be accomplished by routing the IP datagram through
various devices such as routers.
ARP Protocol

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o ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol.

o ARP is a network layer protocol which is used to find the physical address
from the IP address.
o The two terms are mainly associated with the ARP Protocol:
o ARP request: When a sender wants to know the physical address of
the device, it broadcasts the ARP request to the network.
o ARP reply: Every device attached to the network will accept the ARP
request and process the request, but only recipient recognize the IP
address and sends back its physical address in the form of ARP reply.
The recipient adds the physical address both to its cache memory
and to the datagram header
ICMP Protocol
o ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol.
o It is a mechanism used by the hosts or routers to send notifications
regarding datagram problems back to the sender.
o A datagram travels from router-to-router until it reaches its destination. If a
router is unable to route the data because of some unusual conditions such
as disabled links, a device is on fire or network congestion, then the ICMP
protocol is used to inform the sender that the datagram is undeliverable.
o An ICMP protocol mainly uses two terms:
o ICMP Test: ICMP Test is used to test whether the destination is
reachable or not.
o ICMP Reply: ICMP Reply is used to check whether the destination
device is responding or not.
o The core responsibility of the ICMP protocol is to report the problems, not
correct them. The responsibility of the correction lies with the sender.
o ICMP can send the messages only to the source, but not to the
intermediate routers because the IP datagram carries the addresses of the
source and destination but not of the router that it is passed to.

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Transport Layer
The transport layer is responsible for the reliability, flow control, and correction of
data which is being sent over the network.
The two protocols used in the transport layer are User Datagram protocol and
Transmission control protocol.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
o It provides connectionless service and end-to-end delivery of
transmission.
o It is an unreliable protocol as it discovers the errors but not specify
the error.
o User Datagram Protocol discovers the error, and ICMP protocol
reports the error to the sender that user datagram has been
damaged.
o UDP consists of the following fields:
Source port address: The source port address is the address of the
application program that has created the message.
Destination port address: The destination port address is the address
of the application program that receives the message.
Total length: It defines the total number of bytes of the user
datagram in bytes.
Checksum: The checksum is a 16-bit field used in error detection.
o UDP does not specify which packet is lost. UDP contains only
checksum; it does not contain any ID of a data segment.

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Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

o It provides a full transport layer services to applications.
o It creates a virtual circuit between the sender and receiver, and it is
active for the duration of the transmission.
o TCP is a reliable protocol as it detects the error and retransmits the
damaged frames. Therefore, it ensures all the segments must be
received and acknowledged before the transmission is considered to
be completed and a virtual circuit is discarded.
o At the sending end, TCP divides the whole message into smaller units
known as segment, and each segment contains a sequence number
which is required for reordering the frames to form an original
message.
o At the receiving end, TCP collects all the segments and reorders them
based on sequence numbers.
Application Layer
o An application layer is the topmost layer in the TCP/IP model.
o It is responsible for handling high-level protocols, issues of representation.
o This layer allows the user to interact with the application.

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o When one application layer protocol wants to communicate with another

application layer, it forwards its data to the transport layer.
o There is an ambiguity occurs in the application layer. Every application
cannot be placed inside the application layer except those who interact
with the communication system. For example: text editor cannot be
considered in application layer while web browser using HTTP protocol to
interact with the network where HTTP protocol is an application layer
protocol.
Following are the main protocols used in the application layer:
o HTTP: HTTP stands for Hypertext transfer protocol. This protocol allows us
to access the data over the world wide web. It transfers the data in the
form of plain text, audio, video. It is known as a Hypertext transfer protocol
as it has the efficiency to use in a hypertext environment where there are
rapid jumps from one document to another.
o SNMP: SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It is a
framework used for managing the devices on the internet by using the
TCP/IP protocol suite.
o SMTP: SMTP stands for Simple mail transfer protocol. The TCP/IP protocol
that supports the e-mail is known as a Simple mail transfer protocol. This
protocol is used to send the data to another e-mail address.
o DNS: DNS stands for Domain Name System. An IP address is used to
identify the connection of a host to the internet uniquely. But, people
prefer to use the names instead of addresses. Therefore, the system that
maps the name to the address is known as Domain Name System.
o TELNET: It is an abbreviation for Terminal Network. It establishes the
connection between the local computer and remote computer in such a
way that the local terminal appears to be a terminal at the remote system.
o FTP: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a standard internet
protocol used for transmitting the files from one computer to another
computer.
ADDRESSING

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Four levels of addresses are used in an internet employing the TCP/IP protocols:
physical address, logical address, port address, and application-specific address.
Each address is related to a one layer in the TCP/IP architecture, as shown in the
following Figure.

Physical Addresses
The physical address, also known as the link address, is the address of a node as
defined by its LAN or WAN. It is included in the frame used by the data link layer.
It is the lowest-level address. The size and format of these addresses vary
depending on the network. For example, Ethernet uses a 6-byte (48-bit) physical
address that is imprinted on the network interface card (NIC).
Most local area networks use a 48-bit (6-byte) physical address written as 12
hexadecimal digits; every byte (2 hexadecimal digits) is separated by a colon, as
shown below.

Example (1)
In Figure below a node with physical address 10 sends a frame to a node with
physical address

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The two nodes are connected by a link (a LAN). At the data link layer, this frame
contains physical (link) addresses in the header. These are the only addresses
needed. The rest of the header contains other information needed at this level.
The trailer usually contains extra bits needed for error detection. The data link
layer at the sender receives data from an upper layer. It encapsulates the data in
a frame, adding a header and a trailer. The header, among other pieces of
information, carries the receiver and the sender physical (link) addresses.
Note that in most data link protocols, the destination address 87 in this case,
comes before the source address (10 in this case). The frame is propagated
through the LAN. Each station with a physical address other than 87 drops the
frame because the destination address in the frame does not match its own
physical address. The intended destination computer, however, finds a match
between the destination address in the frame and its own physical address. The
frame is checked, the header and trailer are dropped, and the data part is
decapsulated and delivered to the upper layer.

Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast Physical Addresses

Physical addresses can be either unicast (one single recipient), multicast (a group
of recipients), or broadcast (to be received by all systems in the network). Some
networks support all three addresses.
A source address is always a unicast address—the frame comes from only one
station. The destination address, however, can be unicast, multicast, or
broadcast. The least significant bit of the first byte defines the type of address.

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Q: Define the type of the following destination addresses:

1. 4A:30:10:21:10:1A
2. 47:20:1B:2E:08:EE
3. FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Logical Addresses
Logical addresses are necessary for universal communications that are
independent of underlying physical networks. Physical addresses are not
adequate in an internetwork environment where different networks can have
different address formats. A universal addressing system is needed in which each
host can be identified uniquely, regardless of the underlying physical network.
The logical addresses are designed for this purpose. A logical address in the
Internet is currently a 32- bit address that can uniquely define a host connected to
the Internet. No two publicly addressed and visible hosts on the Internet can have
the same IP address.
Example (2)
The Figure below shows a part of an internet with two routers connecting three
LANs. Each device (computer or router) has a pair of addresses (logical and
physical) for each connection. In this case, each computer is connected to only
one link and therefore has only one pair of addresses. Each router, however, is
connected to three networks (only two are shown in the figure). So each router
has three pairs of addresses, one for each connection. Although it may be obvious
that each router must have a separate physical address for each connection, it
may. The computer with logical address A and physical address 10 needs to send
a packet to the computer with logical address P and physical address 95. The
sender encapsulates its data in a packet at the network layer and adds two logical
addresses (A and P). Note that in most protocols, the logical source address
comes before the logical destination address (contrary to the order of physical
addresses). The network layer, however, needs to find the physical address of the

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next hop before the packet can be delivered. The network layer consults its
routing table and finds the logical address of the next hop (router 1) to be F.

Another protocol, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) finds the physical address of
router 1 that corresponds to its logical address (20). Now the network layer
passes this address to the data link layer, which in turn, encapsulates the packet
with physical destination address 20 and physical source address 10. The router
decapsulates the packet from the frame to read the logical destination address P.
Since the logical destination address does not match the router’s logical address,
the router knows that the packet needs to be forwarded. The router consults its
routing table and ARP to find the physical destination address of the next hop
(router 2), creates a new frame, encapsulates the packet, and sends it to router 2.
Note the physical addresses in the frame. The source physical address changes
from 10 to 99. The destination physical address changes from 20 (router 1
physical address) to 33 (router 2 physical address). The logical source and
destination addresses must remain the same; otherwise the packet will be lost. At
router 2 we have a similar scenario. The physical addresses are changed, and a
new frame is sent to the destination computer. When the frame reaches the
destination, the packet is decapsulated. The destination logical address P matches
the logical address of the computer. The data are decapsulated from the packet
and delivered to the upper layer. Note that although physical addresses will
change from hop to hop, logical addresses remain the same from the source to
destination.

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Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast Addresses

The logical addresses can be either unicast (one single recipient), multicast (a
group of recipients), or broadcast (all systems in the network).
Port Addresses
The IP address and the physical address are necessary for a quantity of data to
travel from a source to the destination host. However, arrival at the destination
host is not the final objective of data communications on the Internet. Computers
are devices that can run multiple processes at the same time. The end objective
of Internet communication is a process communicating with another process. For
example, computer A can communicate with computer C by using TELNET. At the
same time, computer A communicates with computer B by using the File Transfer
Protocol (FTP). For these processes to receive data simultaneously, we need a
method to label the different processes.
In other words, they need addresses. In the TCP/IP architecture, the label
assigned to a process is called a port address. A port address in TCP/IP is 16 bits in
length.

A port address is a 16-bit address represented by one decimal number as shown.

Example (3)

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The following Figure shows two computers communicating via the Internet. The
sending computer is running three processes at this time with port addresses a, b,
and c. The receiving computer is running two processes at this time with port
addresses j and k. Process a in the sending computer needs to communicate with
process j in the receiving computer. Note that although both computers are using
the same application, FTP, for example, the port addresses are different because
one is a client program and the other is a server program.

To show that data from process a need to be delivered to process j, and not k, the
transport layer encapsulates data from the application layer in a packet and adds
two port addresses (a and j), source and destination. The packet from the
transport layer is then encapsulated in another packet at the network layer with
logical source and destination addresses (A and P). Finally, this packet is
encapsulated in a frame with the physical source and destination addresses of the
next hop. We have not shown the physical addresses because they change from
hop to hop inside the cloud designated as the Internet. Note that although
physical addresses change from hop to hop, logical and port addresses remain the
same from the source to destination.

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 In the TCP/IP protocol suite, the port numbers are integers between 0 and
65,535.
 The client program defines itself with a port number, called the ephemeral
port number (chosen randomly). The word ephemeral means short lived.
 The server process must also define itself with a port number (called well-
known port numbers). This port number, however, cannot be chosen
randomly.
ICANN Ranges (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
ICANN has divided the port numbers into three ranges: well-known, registered,
and dynamic (or private)

 Well-known ports: The ports ranging from 0 to 1,023 are assigned and
controlled by ICANN..

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 Registered ports: The ports ranging from 1,024 to 49,151 are not assigned
or controlled by ICANN. They can only be registered with ICANN to prevent
duplication.
 Dynamic ports: The ports ranging from 49,152 to 65,535 are neither
controlled nor registered. They can be used as temporary or private port
numbers. The original recommendation was that the ephemeral port
numbers for clients be chosen from this range. However, most systems do
not follow this recommendation.
Application-Specific Addresses
Some applications have user-friendly addresses that are designed for that specific
application. Examples include the e-mail address (for example,
[email protected]) and the Universal Resource Locator (URL) (for example,
www.mhhe.com). The first defines the recipient of an e-mail; the second is used
to find a document on the World Wide Web. These addresses, however, get
changed to the corresponding port and logical addresses by the sending
computer.
Switching
o When a user accesses the internet or another computer network outside
their immediate location, messages are sent through the network of
transmission media. This technique of transferring the information from
one computer network to another network is known as switching.
o Switching in a computer network is achieved by using switches. A switch is
a small hardware device which is used to join multiple computers together
with one local area network (LAN).
o Network switches operate at layer 2 (Data link layer) in the OSI model.
o Switching is transparent to the user and does not require any configuration
in the home network.
o Switches are used to forward the packets based on MAC addresses.
o A Switch is used to transfer the data only to the device that has been
addressed. It verifies the destination address to route the packet
appropriately.
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o It is operated in full duplex mode.

o Packet collision is minimum as it directly communicates between source
and destination.
o It does not broadcast the message as it works with limited bandwidth.
Why is Switching Concept required?
Switching concept is developed because of the following reasons:
o Bandwidth: It is defined as the maximum transfer rate of a cable. It is a very
critical and expensive resource. Therefore, switching techniques are used
for the effective utilization of the bandwidth of a network.
o Collision: Collision is the effect that occurs when more than one device
transmits the message over the same physical media, and they collide with
each other. To overcome this problem, switching technology is
implemented so that packets do not collide with each other.
Advantages of Switching:
o Switch increases the bandwidth of the network.
o It reduces the workload on individual PCs as it sends the information to
only that device which has been addressed.
o It increases the overall performance of the network by reducing the traffic
on the network.
o There will be less frame collision as switch creates the collision domain for
each connection.
Disadvantages of Switching:
o A Switch is more expensive than network bridges.
o A Switch cannot determine the network connectivity issues easily.
o Proper designing and configuration of the switch are required to handle
multicast packets.
Switching Modes

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o The layer 2 switches are used for transmitting the data on the data link
layer, and it also performs error checking on transmitted and received
frames.
o The layer 2 switches forward the packets with the help of MAC address.
o Different modes are used for forwarding the packets known as Switching
modes.
o In switching mode, Different parts of a frame are recognized. The frame
consists of several parts such as preamble, destination MAC address, source
MAC address, user's data, FCS.

There are three types of switching modes:

o Store-and-forward
o Cut-through
o Fragment-free

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Store-and-forward

o Store-and-forward is a technique in which the intermediate nodes store the

received frame and then check for errors before forwarding the packets to
the next node.
o The layer 2 switch waits until the entire frame has received. On receiving
the entire frame, switch store the frame into the switch buffer memory.
This process is known as storing the frame.
o When the frame is stored, then the frame is checked for the errors. If any
error found, the message is discarded otherwise the message is forwarded
to the next node. This process is known as forwarding the frame.
o CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) technique is implemented that uses a
number of bits to check for the errors on the received frame.
o The store-and-forward technique ensures a high level of security as the
destination network will not be affected by the corrupted frames.
o Store-and-forward switches are highly reliable as it does not forward the
collided frames.
Cut-through Switching

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o Cut-through switching is a technique in which the switch forwards the

packets after the destination address has been identified without waiting
for the entire frame to be received.
o Once the frame is received, it checks the first six bytes of the frame
following the preamble, the switch checks the destination in the switching
table to determine the outgoing interface port, and forwards the frame to
the destination.
o It has low latency rate as the switch does not wait for the entire frame to
be received before sending the packets to the destination.
o It has no error checking technique. Therefore, the errors can be sent with
or without errors to the receiver.
o A Cut-through switching technique has low wait time as it forwards the
packets as soon as it identifies the destination MAC address.
o In this technique, collision is not detected, if frames have collided will also
be forwarded.
Fragment-free Switching

o A Fragment-free switching is an advanced technique of the Cut-through

Switching.
o A Fragment-free switching is a technique that reads atleast 64 bytes of a
frame before forwarding to the next node to provide the error-free
transmission.
o It combines the speed of Cut-through Switching with the error checking
functionality.

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o This technique checks the 64 bytes of the ethernet frame where addressing
information is available.
o A collision is detected within 64 bytes of the frame, the frames which are
collided will not be forwarded further.
Differences b/w Store-and-forward and Cut-through Switching.

Store-and-forward Switching Cut-through Switching

Store-and-forward Switching is a Cut-through Switching is a technique

technique that waits until the entire that checks the first 6 bytes
frame is received. following the preamble to identify
the destination address.

It performs error checking functionality. It does not perform any error

If any error is found in the frame, the checking. The frame with or without
frame will be discarded otherwise errors will be forwarded.
forwarded to the next node.

It has high latency rate as it waits for the It has low latency rate as it checks
entire frame to be received before only six bytes of the frame to
forwarding to the next node. determine the destination address.

It is highly reliable as it forwards only It is less reliable as compared to

error-free packets. Store-and-forward technique as it
forwards error prone packets as
well.

It has a high wait time as it waits for the It has low wait time as cut-through
entire frame to be received before taking switches do not store the whole
any forwarding decisions. frame or packets.

Switching techniques

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In large networks, there can be multiple paths from sender to receiver. The
switching technique will decide the best route for data transmission.
Switching technique is used to connect the systems for making one-to-one
communication.
Classification Of Switching Techniques

Circuit Switching
o Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated path
between sender and receiver.
o In the Circuit Switching Technique, once the connection is established then
the dedicated path will remain to exist until the connection is terminated.
o Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the telephone
works.
o A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes
place.
o In case of circuit switching technique, when any user wants to send the
data, voice, video, a request signal is sent to the receiver then the receiver
sends back the acknowledgment to ensure the availability of the dedicated
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path. After receiving the acknowledgment, dedicated path transfers the

data.
o Circuit switching is used in public telephone network. It is used for voice
transmission.
o Fixed data can be transferred at a time in circuit switching technology.
Communication through circuit switching has 3 phases:
o Circuit establishment
o Data transfer
o Circuit Disconnect

Circuit Switching can use either of the two technologies:

Space Division Switches:
o Space Division Switching is a circuit switching technology in which a single
transmission path is accomplished in a switch by using a physically separate
set of crosspoints.
o Space Division Switching can be achieved by using crossbar switch. A
crossbar switch is a metallic crosspoint or semiconductor gate that can be
enabled or disabled by a control unit.
o The Crossbar switch is made by using the semiconductor. For example,
Xilinx crossbar switch using FPGAs.
o Space Division Switching has high speed, high capacity, and nonblocking
switches.

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Space Division Switches can be categorized in two ways:

o Crossbar Switch
o Multistage Switch
Crossbar Switch
The Crossbar switch is a switch that has n input lines and n output lines. The
crossbar switch has n2 intersection points known as crosspoints.
Disadvantage of Crossbar switch:
The number of crosspoints increases as the number of stations is increased.
Therefore, it becomes very expensive for a large switch. The solution to this is to
use a multistage switch.
Multistage Switch
o Multistage Switch is made by splitting the crossbar switch into the smaller
units and then interconnecting them.
o It reduces the number of crosspoints.
o If one path fails, then there will be an availability of another path.
Advantages Of Circuit Switching:
o In the case of Circuit Switching technique, the communication channel is
dedicated.
o It has fixed bandwidth.
Disadvantages Of Circuit Switching:
o Once the dedicated path is established, the only delay occurs in the speed
of data transmission.
o It takes a long time to establish a connection approx 10 seconds during
which no data can be transmitted.
o It is more expensive than other switching techniques as a dedicated path is
required for each connection.

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o It is inefficient to use because once the path is established and no data is

transferred, then the capacity of the path is wasted.
o In this case, the connection is dedicated therefore no other data can be
transferred even if the channel is free.
Message Switching
o Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is
transferred as a complete unit and routed through intermediate nodes at
which it is stored and forwarded.
o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated
path between the sender and receiver.
o The destination address is appended to the message. Message Switching
provides a dynamic routing as the message is routed through the
intermediate nodes based on the information available in the message.
o Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can provide
the most efficient routes.
o Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward it to the
next node. This type of network is known as store and forward network.
o Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.

Advantages Of Message Switching

o Data channels are shared among the communicating devices that improve
the efficiency of using available bandwidth.

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o Traffic congestion can be reduced because the message is temporarily

stored in the nodes.
o Message priority can be used to manage the network.
o The size of the message which is sent over the network can be varied.
Therefore, it supports the data of unlimited size.
Disadvantages Of Message Switching
o The message switches must be equipped with sufficient storage to enable
them to store the messages until the message is forwarded.
o The Long delay can occur due to the storing and forwarding facility
provided by the message switching technique.
Packet Switching
o The packet switching is a switching technique in which the message is sent
in one go, but it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent
individually.
o The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are
given a unique number to identify their order at the receiving end.
o Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source
address, destination address and sequence number.
o Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
o All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to
resend the message.
o If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment
message will be sent.

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Approaches Of Packet Switching:

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:
Datagram Packet switching:
o It is a packet switching technology in which packet is known as a datagram,
is considered as an independent entity. Each packet contains the
information about the destination and switch uses this information to
forward the packet to the correct destination.
o The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o In Datagram Packet Switching technique, the path is not fixed.
o Intermediate nodes take the routing decisions to forward the packets.
o Datagram Packet Switching is also known as connectionless switching.
Virtual Circuit Switching
o Virtual Circuit Switching is also known as connection-oriented switching.
o In the case of Virtual circuit switching, a preplanned route is established
before the messages are sent.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish the connection
between sender and receiver.
o In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.

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the concept of virtual circuit switching through a diagram:

o In the above diagram, A and B are the sender and receiver respectively. 1
and 2 are the nodes.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish a connection
between the sender and receiver.
o When a route is established, data will be transferred.
o After transmission of data, an acknowledgment signal is sent by the
receiver that the message has been received.
o If the user wants to terminate the connection, a clear signal is sent for the
termination.
Differences b/w Datagram approach and Virtual Circuit approach

Datagram approach Virtual Circuit approach

Node takes routing decisions to Node does not take any routing decision.
forward the packets.

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Congestion cannot occur as all the Congestion can occur when the node is
packets travel in different busy, and it does not allow other packets to
directions. pass through.

It is more flexible as all the packets It is not very flexible.

are treated as an independent
entity.

Advantages Of Packet Switching:

o Cost-effective: In packet switching technique, switching devices do not
require massive secondary storage to store the packets, so cost is
minimized to some extent. Therefore, we can say that the packet switching
technique is a cost-effective technique.
o Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be rerouted. This
ensures that the Packet Switching technique provides reliable
communication.
o Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It does not require any
established path prior to the transmission, and many users can use the
same communication channel simultaneously, hence makes use of available
bandwidth very efficiently.
Disadvantages Of Packet Switching:
o Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented in those applications
that require low delay and high-quality services.
o The protocols used in a packet switching technique are very complex and
requires high implementation cost.
o If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it requires retransmission
of lost packets. It can also lead to the loss of critical information if errors
are nor recovered.
Framing in Data Link Layer

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In the physical layer, data transmission involves synchronised transmission of bits

from the source to the destination. The data link layer packs these bits into
frames.
Data-link layer takes the packets from the Network Layer and encapsulates them
into frames. If the frame size becomes too large, then the packet may be divided
into small sized frames. Smaller sized frames makes flow control and error control
more efficient.
Then, it sends each frame bit-by-bit on the hardware. At receiver’s end, data link
layer picks up signals from hardware and assembles them into frames.

Parts of a Frame
A frame has the following parts −
 Frame Header − It contains the source and the destination addresses of the
frame.
 Payload field − It contains the message to be delivered.
 Trailer − It contains the error detection and error correction bits.
 Flag − It marks the beginning and end of the frame.

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Types of Framing
Framing can be of two types, fixed sized framing and variable sized framing.
Fixed-sized Framing
Here the size of the frame is fixed and so the frame length acts as delimiter of the
frame. Consequently, it does not require additional boundary bits to identify the
start and end of the frame.
Example − ATM cells.
Variable – Sized Framing
Here, the size of each frame to be transmitted may be different. So additional
mechanisms are kept to mark the end of one frame and the beginning of the next
frame.
It is used in local area networks.
Two ways to define frame delimiters in variable sized framing are −
 Length Field − Here, a length field is used that determines the size of the
frame. It is used in Ethernet (IEEE 802.3).
 End Delimiter − Here, a pattern is used as a delimiter to determine the size
of frame. It is used in Token Rings. If the pattern occurs in the message,
then two approaches are used to avoid the situation −
o Byte – Stuffing − A byte is stuffed in the message to differentiate
from the delimiter. This is also called character-oriented framing.
o Bit – Stuffing − A pattern of bits of arbitrary length is stuffed in the
message to differentiate from the delimiter. This is also called bit –
oriented framing.

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Error Detection
When data is transmitted from one device to another device, the system does not
guarantee whether the data received by the device is identical to the data
transmitted by another device. An Error is a situation when the message received
at the receiver end is not identical to the message transmitted.
Types Of Errors

Errors can be classified into two categories:

o Single-Bit Error
o Burst Error
Single-Bit Error:
The only one bit of a given data unit is changed from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.

In the above figure, the message which is sent is corrupted as single-bit, i.e., 0 bit
is changed to 1.
Single-Bit Error does not appear more likely in Serial Data Transmission. For
example, Sender sends the data at 10 Mbps, this means that the bit lasts only for
1 ?s and for a single-bit error to occurred, a noise must be more than 1 ?s.

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Single-Bit Error mainly occurs in Parallel Data Transmission. For example, if eight
wires are used to send the eight bits of a byte, if one of the wire is noisy, then
single-bit is corrupted per byte.
Burst Error:
The two or more bits are changed from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0 is known as Burst
Error.
The Burst Error is determined from the first corrupted bit to the last corrupted
bit.

The duration of noise in Burst Error is more than the duration of noise in Single-
Bit.
Burst Errors are most likely to occurr in Serial Data Transmission.
The number of affected bits depends on the duration of the noise and data rate.
Error Detecting Techniques:
The most popular Error Detecting Techniques are:
o Single parity check
o Two-dimensional parity check
o Checksum
o Cyclic redundancy check
Single Parity Check

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o Single Parity checking is the simple mechanism and inexpensive to detect

the errors.
o In this technique, a redundant bit is also known as a parity bit which is
appended at the end of the data unit so that the number of 1s becomes
even. Therefore, the total number of transmitted bits would be 9 bits.
o If the number of 1s bits is odd, then parity bit 1 is appended and if the
number of 1s bits is even, then parity bit 0 is appended at the end of the
data unit.
o At the receiving end, the parity bit is calculated from the received data bits
and compared with the received parity bit.
o This technique generates the total number of 1s even, so it is known as
even-parity checking.

Drawbacks Of Single Parity Checking

o It can only detect single-bit errors which are very rare.
o If two bits are interchanged, then it cannot detect the errors.

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Two-Dimensional Parity Check

o Performance can be improved by using Two-Dimensional Parity
Check which organizes the data in the form of a table.
o Parity check bits are computed for each row, which is equivalent to the
single-parity check.
o In Two-Dimensional Parity check, a block of bits is divided into rows, and
the redundant row of bits is added to the whole block.
o At the receiving end, the parity bits are compared with the parity bits
computed from the received data.

Drawbacks Of 2D Parity Check

o If two bits in one data unit are corrupted and two bits exactly the same
position in another data unit are also corrupted, then 2D Parity checker will
not be able to detect the error.
o This technique cannot be used to detect the 4-bit errors or more in some
cases.

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Checksum
A Checksum is an error detection technique based on the concept of redundancy.
It is divided into two parts:
Checksum Generator
A Checksum is generated at the sending side. Checksum generator subdivides the
data into equal segments of n bits each, and all these segments are added
together by using one's complement arithmetic. The sum is complemented and
appended to the original data, known as checksum field. The extended data is
transmitted across the network.
Suppose L is the total sum of the data segments, then the checksum would be ?L

1. The Sender follows the given steps:

2. The block unit is divided into k sections, and each of n bits.
3. All the k sections are added together by using one's complement to get th
e sum.

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4. The sum is complemented and it becomes the checksum field.

5. The original data and checksum field are sent across the network.
Checksum Checker
A Checksum is verified at the receiving side. The receiver subdivides the incoming
data into equal segments of n bits each, and all these segments are added
together, and then this sum is complemented. If the complement of the sum is
zero, then the data is accepted otherwise data is rejected.
1. The Receiver follows the given steps:
2. The block unit is divided into k sections and each of n bits.
3. All the k sections are added together by using one's complement algorith
m to get the sum.
4. The sum is complemented.
5. If the result of the sum is zero, then the data is accepted otherwise the dat
a is discarded.
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
CRC is a redundancy error technique used to determine the error.
Following are the steps used in CRC for error detection:
o In CRC technique, a string of n 0s is appended to the data unit, and this n
number is less than the number of bits in a predetermined number, known
as division which is n+1 bits.
o Secondly, the newly extended data is divided by a divisor using a process is
known as binary division. The remainder generated from this division is
known as CRC remainder.
o Thirdly, the CRC remainder replaces the appended 0s at the end of the
original data. This newly generated unit is sent to the receiver.
o The receiver receives the data followed by the CRC remainder. The receiver
will treat this whole unit as a single unit, and it is divided by the same
divisor that was used to find the CRC remainder.
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If the resultant of this division is zero which means that it has no error, and the
data is accepted.
If the resultant of this division is not zero which means that the data consists of an
error. Therefore, the data is discarded.

this concept through an example:

Suppose the original data is 11100 and divisor is 1001.
CRC Generator
o A CRC generator uses a modulo-2 division. Firstly, three zeroes are
appended at the end of the data as the length of the divisor is 4 and we
know that the length of the string 0s to be appended is always one less
than the length of the divisor.
o Now, the string becomes 11100000, and the resultant string is divided by
the divisor 1001.
o The remainder generated from the binary division is known as CRC
remainder. The generated value of the CRC remainder is 111.
o CRC remainder replaces the appended string of 0s at the end of the data
unit, and the final string would be 11100111 which is sent across the
network.

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CRC Checker
o The functionality of the CRC checker is similar to the CRC generator.
o When the string 11100111 is received at the receiving end, then CRC
checker performs the modulo-2 division.
o A string is divided by the same divisor, i.e., 1001.
o In this case, CRC checker generates the remainder of zero. Therefore, the
data is accepted.

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Error Correction
Error Correction codes are used to detect and correct the errors when data is
transmitted from the sender to the receiver.
Error Correction can be handled in two ways:
o Backward error correction: Once the error is discovered, the receiver
requests the sender to retransmit the entire data unit.
o Forward error correction: In this case, the receiver uses the error-
correcting code which automatically corrects the errors.
A single additional bit can detect the error, but cannot correct it.
For correcting the errors, one has to know the exact position of the error. For
example, If we want to calculate a single-bit error, the error correction code will
determine which one of seven bits is in error. To achieve this, we have to add
some additional redundant bits.
Suppose r is the number of redundant bits and d is the total number of the data
bits. The number of redundant bits r can be calculated by using the formula:
2r>=d+r+1
The value of r is calculated by using the above formula. For example, if the value
of d is 4, then the possible smallest value that satisfies the above relation would
be 3.
To determine the position of the bit which is in error, a technique developed by
R.W Hamming is Hamming code which can be applied to any length of the data
unit and uses the relationship between data units and redundant units.
Hamming Code
Parity bits: The bit which is appended to the original data of binary bits so that
the total number of 1s is even or odd.
Even parity: To check for even parity, if the total number of 1s is even, then the
value of the parity bit is 0. If the total number of 1s occurrences is odd, then the
value of the parity bit is 1.

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Odd Parity: To check for odd parity, if the total number of 1s is even, then the
value of parity bit is 1. If the total number of 1s is odd, then the value of parity bit
is 0.
Algorithm of Hamming code:
o An information of 'd' bits are added to the redundant bits 'r' to form d+r.
o The location of each of the (d+r) digits is assigned a decimal value.
o The 'r' bits are placed in the positions 1,2,.....2k-1.
o At the receiving end, the parity bits are recalculated. The decimal value of
the parity bits determines the position of an error.
Relationship b/w Error position & binary number.

the concept of Hamming code through an example:

Suppose the original data is 1010 which is to be sent.
Total number of data bits 'd' = 4
Number of redundant bits r : 2r >= d+r+1
2r>= 4+r+1
Therefore, the value of r is 3 that satisfies the above relation.
Total number of bits = d+r = 4+3 = 7;
Determining the position of the redundant bits

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The number of redundant bits is 3. The three bits are represented by r1, r2, r4.
The position of the redundant bits is calculated with corresponds to the raised
power of 2. Therefore, their corresponding positions are 1, 21, 22.
1. The position of r1 = 1
2. The position of r2 = 2
3. The position of r4 = 4
Representation of Data on the addition of parity bits:

Determining the Parity bits

Determining the r1 bit
The r1 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose
binary representation includes 1 in the first position.

We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the first
position are 1, 3, 5, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit
positions. The total number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r1 is even,
therefore, the value of the r1 bit is 0.
Determining r2 bit
The r2 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose
binary representation includes 1 in the second position.

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We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the
second position are 2, 3, 6, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit
positions. The total number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r2 is odd,
therefore, the value of the r2 bit is 1.
Determining r4 bit
The r4 bit is calculated by performing a parity check on the bit positions whose
binary representation includes 1 in the third position.

We observe from the above figure that the bit positions that includes 1 in the
third position are 4, 5, 6, 7. Now, we perform the even-parity check at these bit
positions. The total number of 1 at these bit positions corresponding to r4 is even,
therefore, the value of the r4 bit is 0.
Data transferred is given below:

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Suppose the 4th bit is changed from 0 to 1 at the receiving end, then parity bits are
recalculated.
R1 bit
The bit positions of the r1 bit are 1,3,5,7

We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r1 is 1100.
Now, we perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the
r1 bit is an even number. Therefore, the value of r1 is 0.
R2 bit
The bit positions of r2 bit are 2,3,6,7.

We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r2 is 1001.
Now, we perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the
r2 bit is an even number. Therefore, the value of r2 is 0.
R4 bit
The bit positions of r4 bit are 4,5,6,7.

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We observe from the above figure that the binary representation of r4 is 1011.
Now, we perform the even-parity check, the total number of 1s appearing in the
r4 bit is an odd number. Therefore, the value of r4 is 1.
o The binary representation of redundant bits, i.e., r4r2r1 is 100, and its
corresponding decimal value is 4. Therefore, the error occurs in a 4th bit
position. The bit value must be changed from 1 to 0 to correct the error.
Data Link Controls
Data Link Control is the service provided by the Data Link Layer to provide reliable
data transfer over the physical medium. For example, In the half-duplex
transmission mode, one device can only transmit the data at a time. If both the
devices at the end of the links transmit the data simultaneously, they will collide
and leads to the loss of the information. The Data link layer provides the
coordination among the devices so that no collision occurs.
The Data link layer provides three functions:
o Line discipline
o Flow Control
o Error Control

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Line Discipline
o Line Discipline is a functionality of the Data link layer that provides the
coordination among the link systems. It determines which device can send,
and when it can send the data.
Line Discipline can be achieved in two ways:
o ENQ/ACK
o Poll/select
END/ACK
END/ACK stands for Enquiry/Acknowledgement is used when there is no wrong
receiver available on the link and having a dedicated path between the two
devices so that the device capable of receiving the transmission is the intended
one.
END/ACK coordinates which device will start the transmission and whether the
recipient is ready or not.
Working of END/ACK
The transmitter transmits the frame called an Enquiry (ENQ) asking whether the
receiver is available to receive the data or not.
The receiver responses either with the positive acknowledgement(ACK) or with
the negative acknowledgement(NACK) where positive acknowledgement means

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that the receiver is ready to receive the transmission and negative

acknowledgement means that the receiver is unable to accept the transmission.
Following are the responses of the receiver:
o If the response to the ENQ is positive, the sender will transmit its data, and
once all of its data has been transmitted, the device finishes its
transmission with an EOT (END-of-Transmission) frame.
o If the response to the ENQ is negative, then the sender disconnects and
restarts the transmission at another time.
o If the response is neither negative nor positive, the sender assumes that
the ENQ frame was lost during the transmission and makes three attempts
to establish a link before giving up.

Poll/Select
The Poll/Select method of line discipline works with those topologies where one
device is designated as a primary station, and other devices are secondary
stations.
Working of Poll/Select

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o In this, the primary device and multiple secondary devices consist of a

single transmission line, and all the exchanges are made through the
primary device even though the destination is a secondary device.
o The primary device has control over the communication link, and the
secondary device follows the instructions of the primary device.
o The primary device determines which device is allowed to use the
communication channel. Therefore, we can say that it is an initiator of the
session.
o If the primary device wants to receive the data from the secondary device,
it asks the secondary device that they anything to send, this process is
known as polling.
o If the primary device wants to send some data to the secondary device,
then it tells the target secondary to get ready to receive the data, this
process is known as selecting.
Select
o The select mode is used when the primary device has something to send.
o When the primary device wants to send some data, then it alerts the
secondary device for the upcoming transmission by transmitting a Select
(SEL) frame, one field of the frame includes the address of the intended
secondary device.
o When the secondary device receives the SEL frame, it sends an
acknowledgement that indicates the secondary ready status.
o If the secondary device is ready to accept the data, then the primary device
sends two or more data frames to the intended secondary device. Once the
data has been transmitted, the secondary sends an acknowledgement
specifies that the data has been received.

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Poll
o The Poll mode is used when the primary device wants to receive some data
from the secondary device.
o When a primary device wants to receive the data, then it asks each device
whether it has anything to send.
o Firstly, the primary asks (poll) the first secondary device, if it responds with
the NACK (Negative Acknowledgement) means that it has nothing to send.
Now, it approaches the second secondary device, it responds with the ACK
means that it has the data to send. The secondary device can send more
than one frame one after another or sometimes it may be required to send
ACK before sending each one, depending on the type of the protocol being
used.

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Flow Control
o It is a set of procedures that tells the sender how much data it can transmit
before the data overwhelms the receiver.
o The receiving device has limited speed and limited memory to store the
data. Therefore, the receiving device must be able to inform the sending
device to stop the transmission temporarily before the limits are reached.
o It requires a buffer, a block of memory for storing the information until
they are processed.
Two methods have been developed to control the flow of data:
o Stop-and-wait

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o Sliding window
Stop-and-wait
o In the Stop-and-wait method, the sender waits for an acknowledgement
after every frame it sends.
o When acknowledgement is received, then only next frame is sent. The
process of alternately sending and waiting of a frame continues until the
sender transmits the EOT (End of transmission) frame.
Advantage of Stop-and-wait
The Stop-and-wait method is simple as each frame is checked and acknowledged
before the next frame is sent.
Disadvantage of Stop-and-wait
Stop-and-wait technique is inefficient to use as each frame must travel across all
the way to the receiver, and an acknowledgement travels all the way before the
next frame is sent. Each frame sent and received uses the entire time needed to
traverse the link.
Sliding Window
o The Sliding Window is a method of flow control in which a sender can
transmit the several frames before getting an acknowledgement.
o In Sliding Window Control, multiple frames can be sent one after the
another due to which capacity of the communication channel can be
utilized efficiently.
o A single ACK acknowledge multiple frames.
o Sliding Window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver
end.
o The window can hold the frames at either end, and it provides the upper
limit on the number of frames that can be transmitted before the
acknowledgement.

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o Frames can be acknowledged even when the window is not completely

filled.
o The window has a specific size in which they are numbered as modulo-n
means that they are numbered from 0 to n-1. For example, if n = 8, the
frames are numbered from 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1........
o The size of the window is represented as n-1. Therefore, maximum n-1
frames can be sent before acknowledgement.
o When the receiver sends the ACK, it includes the number of the next frame
that it wants to receive. For example, to acknowledge the string of frames
ending with frame number 4, the receiver will send the ACK containing the
number 5. When the sender sees the ACK with the number 5, it got to know
that the frames from 0 through 4 have been received.
Sender Window
o At the beginning of a transmission, the sender window contains n-1 frames,
and when they are sent out, the left boundary moves inward shrinking the
size of the window. For example, if the size of the window is w if three
frames are sent out, then the number of frames left out in the sender
window is w-3.
o Once the ACK has arrived, then the sender window expands to the number
which will be equal to the number of frames acknowledged by ACK.
o For example, the size of the window is 7, and if frames 0 through 4 have
been sent out and no acknowledgement has arrived, then the sender
window contains only two frames, i.e., 5 and 6. Now, if ACK has arrived
with a number 4 which means that 0 through 3 frames have arrived
undamaged and the sender window is expanded to include the next four
frames. Therefore, the sender window contains six frames (5,6,7,0,1,2).

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Receiver Window
o At the beginning of transmission, the receiver window does not contain n
frames, but it contains n-1 spaces for frames.
o When the new frame arrives, the size of the window shrinks.
o The receiver window does not represent the number of frames received,
but it represents the number of frames that can be received before an ACK
is sent. For example, the size of the window is w, if three frames are
received then the number of spaces available in the window is (w-3).
o Once the acknowledgement is sent, the receiver window expands by the
number equal to the number of frames acknowledged.
o Suppose the size of the window is 7 means that the receiver window
contains seven spaces for seven frames. If the one frame is received, then
the receiver window shrinks and moving the boundary from 0 to 1. In this
way, window shrinks one by one, so window now contains the six spaces. If
frames from 0 through 4 have sent, then the window contains two spaces
before an acknowledgement is sent.

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Error Control
Error Control is a technique of error detection and retransmission.
Categories of Error Control:

Stop-and-wait ARQ
Stop-and-wait ARQ is a technique used to retransmit the data in case of damaged
or lost frames.
This technique works on the principle that the sender will not transmit the next
frame until it receives the acknowledgement of the last transmitted frame.
Four features are required for the retransmission:
o The sending device keeps a copy of the last transmitted frame until the
acknowledgement is received. Keeping the copy allows the sender to
retransmit the data if the frame is not received correctly.
o Both the data frames and the ACK frames are numbered alternately 0 and 1
so that they can be identified individually. Suppose data 1 frame

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acknowledges the data 0 frame means that the data 0 frame has been
arrived correctly and expects to receive data 1 frame.
o If an error occurs in the last transmitted frame, then the receiver sends the
NAK frame which is not numbered. On receiving the NAK frame, sender
retransmits the data.
o It works with the timer. If the acknowledgement is not received within the
allotted time, then the sender assumes that the frame is lost during the
transmission, so it will retransmit the frame.
Two possibilities of the retransmission:
o Damaged Frame: When the receiver receives a damaged frame, i.e., the
frame contains an error, then it returns the NAK frame. For example, when
the data 0 frame is sent, and then the receiver sends the ACK 1 frame
means that the data 0 has arrived correctly, and transmits the data 1 frame.
The sender transmits the next frame: data 1. It reaches undamaged, and
the receiver returns ACK 0. The sender transmits the next frame: data 0.
The receiver reports an error and returns the NAK frame. The sender
retransmits the data 0 frame.
o Lost Frame: Sender is equipped with the timer and starts when the frame is
transmitted. Sometimes the frame has not arrived at the receiving end so
that it can be acknowledged neither positively nor negatively. The sender
waits for acknowledgement until the timer goes off. If the timer goes off, it
retransmits the last transmitted frame.
Sliding Window ARQ
SlidingWindow ARQ is a technique used for continuous transmission error control.
Three Features used for retransmission:
o In this case, the sender keeps the copies of all the transmitted frames until
they have been acknowledged. Suppose the frames from 0 through 4 have
been transmitted, and the last acknowledgement was for frame 2, the
sender has to keep the copies of frames 3 and 4 until they receive correctly.
o The receiver can send either NAK or ACK depending on the conditions. The
NAK frame tells the sender that the data have been received damaged.
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Since the sliding window is a continuous transmission mechanism, both

ACK and NAK must be numbered for the identification of a frame. The ACK
frame consists of a number that represents the next frame which the
receiver expects to receive. The NAK frame consists of a number that
represents the damaged frame.
o The sliding window ARQ is equipped with the timer to handle the lost
acknowledgements. Suppose then n-1 frames have been sent before
receiving any acknowledgement. The sender waits for the
acknowledgement, so it starts the timer and waits before sending any
more. If the allotted time runs out, the sender retransmits one or all the
frames depending upon the protocol used.
Two protocols used in sliding window ARQ:
o Go-Back-n ARQ: In Go-Back-N ARQ protocol, if one frame is lost or
damaged, then it retransmits all the frames after which it does not receive
the positive ACK.
Three possibilities can occur for retransmission:
o Damaged Frame: When the frame is damaged, then the receiver sends a
NAK frame.

In the above figure, three frames have been transmitted before an error
discovered in the third frame. In this case, ACK 2 has been returned telling that
the frames 0,1 have been received successfully without any error. The receiver

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discovers the error in data 2 frame, so it returns the NAK 2 frame. The frame 3 is
also discarded as it is transmitted after the damaged frame. Therefore, the sender
retransmits the frames 2,3.
o Lost Data Frame: In Sliding window protocols, data frames are sent
sequentially. If any of the frames is lost, then the next frame arrive at the
receiver is out of sequence. The receiver checks the sequence number of
each of the frame, discovers the frame that has been skipped, and returns
the NAK for the missing frame. The sending device retransmits the frame
indicated by NAK as well as the frames transmitted after the lost frame.
o Lost Acknowledgement: The sender can send as many frames as the
windows allow before waiting for any acknowledgement. Once the limit of
the window is reached, the sender has no more frames to send; it must
wait for the acknowledgement. If the acknowledgement is lost, then the
sender could wait forever. To avoid such situation, the sender is equipped
with the timer that starts counting whenever the window capacity is
reached. If the acknowledgement has not been received within the time
limit, then the sender retransmits the frame since the last ACK.
Selective-Reject ARQ
o Selective-Reject ARQ technique is more efficient than Go-Back-n ARQ.
o In this technique, only those frames are retransmitted for which negative
acknowledgement (NAK) has been received.
o The receiver storage buffer keeps all the damaged frames on hold until the
frame in error is correctly received.
o The receiver must have an appropriate logic for reinserting the frames in a
correct order.
o The sender must consist of a searching mechanism that selects only the
requested frame for retransmission.

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Sliding Window Protocol

Sliding window protocols are data link layer protocols for reliable and sequential
delivery of data frames. The sliding window is also used in Transmission Control
Protocol.
In this protocol, multiple frames can be sent by a sender at a time before
receiving an acknowledgment from the receiver. The term sliding window refers
to the imaginary boxes to hold frames. Sliding window method is also known as
windowing.
Working Principle
In these protocols, the sender has a buffer called the sending window and the
receiver has buffer called the receiving window.
The size of the sending window determines the sequence number of the
outbound frames. If the sequence number of the frames is an n-bit field, then the
range of sequence numbers that can be assigned is 0 to 2𝑛−1. Consequently, the
size of the sending window is 2𝑛−1. Thus in order to accommodate a sending
window size of 2𝑛−1, a n-bit sequence number is chosen.
The sequence numbers are numbered as modulo-n. For example, if the sending
window size is 4, then the sequence numbers will be 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 1, and
so on. The number of bits in the sequence number is 2 to generate the binary
sequence 00, 01, 10, 11.

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The size of the receiving window is the maximum number of frames that the
receiver can accept at a time. It determines the maximum number of frames that
the sender can send before receiving acknowledgment.
Example
Suppose that we have sender window and receiver window each of size 4. So the
sequence numbering of both the windows will be 0,1,2,3,0,1,2 and so on. The
following diagram shows the positions of the windows after sending the frames
and receiving acknowledgments.

Types of Sliding Window Protocols

The Sliding Window ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) protocols are of two
categories −

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Go – Back – N ARQ
Go – Back – N ARQ provides for sending multiple frames before receiving the
acknowledgment for the first frame. It uses the concept of sliding window, and so
is also called sliding window protocol. The frames are sequentially numbered and
a finite number of frames are sent. If the acknowledgment of a frame is not
received within the time period, all frames starting from that frame are
retransmitted.
Selective Repeat ARQ
This protocol also provides for sending multiple frames before receiving the
acknowledgment for the first frame. However, here only the erroneous or lost
frames are retransmitted, while the good frames are received and buffered.
High-level Data Link Control (HDLC)
High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) is a group of communication protocols of the
data link layer for transmitting data between network points or nodes. Since it is a
data link protocol, data is organized into frames. A frame is transmitted via the
network to the destination that verifies its successful arrival. It is a bit - oriented
protocol that is applicable for both point - to - point and multipoint
communications.
Transfer Modes
HDLC supports two types of transfer modes, normal response mode and
asynchronous balanced mode.
 Normal Response Mode (NRM) − Here, two types of stations are there,
a primary station that send commands and secondary station that can
respond to received commands. It is used for both point - to - point and
multipoint communications.
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 Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM) − Here, the configuration is

balanced, i.e. each station can both send commands and respond to
commands. It is used for only point - to - point communications.

HDLC Frame
HDLC is a bit - oriented protocol where each frame contains up to six fields. The
structure varies according to the type of frame. The fields of a HDLC frame are −
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 Flag − It is an 8-bit sequence that marks the beginning and the end of the
frame. The bit pattern of the flag is 01111110.
 Address − It contains the address of the receiver. If the frame is sent by the
primary station, it contains the address(es) of the secondary station(s). If it
is sent by the secondary station, it contains the address of the primary
station. The address field may be from 1 byte to several bytes.
 Control − It is 1 or 2 bytes containing flow and error control information.
 Payload − This carries the data from the network layer. Its length may vary
from one network to another.
 FCS − It is a 2 byte or 4 bytes frame check sequence for error detection. The
standard code used is CRC (cyclic redundancy code)

Types of HDLC Frames

There are three types of HDLC frames. The type of frame is determined by the
control field of the frame −
 I-frame − I-frames or Information frames carry user data from the network
layer. They also include flow and error control information that is
piggybacked on user data. The first bit of control field of I-frame is 0.
 S-frame − S-frames or Supervisory frames do not contain information field.
They are used for flow and error control when piggybacking is not required.
The first two bits of control field of S-frame is 10.
 U-frame − U-frames or Un-numbered frames are used for myriad
miscellaneous functions, like link management. It may contain an

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information field, if required. The first two bits of control field of U-frame is
11.

Multiple Access
Multiple access schemes are used to allow many mobile users to share
simultaneously a finite amount of radio spectrum.
Multiple Access Techniques
In wireless communication systems, it is often desirable to allow the subscriber to
send information simultaneously from the mobile station to the base station
while receiving information from the base station to the mobile station.
A cellular system divides any given area into cells where a mobile unit in each cell
communicates with a base station. The main aim in the cellular system design is
to be able to increase the capacity of the channel, i.e., to handle as many calls as
possible in a given bandwidth with a sufficient level of quality of service.
There are several different ways to allow access to the channel. These includes
mainly the following −
 Frequency division multiple-access (FDMA)

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 Time division multiple-access (TDMA)

 Code division multiple-access (CDMA)
 Space division multiple access (SDMA)
Depending on how the available bandwidth is allocated to the users, these
techniques can be classified as narrowband and wideband systems.
Narrowband Systems
Systems operating with channels substantially narrower than the coherence
bandwidth are called as Narrow band systems. Narrow band TDMA allows users
to use the same channel but allocates a unique time slot to each user on the
channel, thus separating a small number of users in time on a single channel.
Wideband Systems
In wideband systems, the transmission bandwidth of a single channel is much
larger than the coherence bandwidth of the channel. Thus, multipath fading
doesn’t greatly affect the received signal within a wideband channel, and
frequency selective fades occur only in a small fraction of the signal bandwidth.
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
FDMA is the basic technology for advanced mobile phone services. The features
of FDMA are as follows.
 FDMA allots a different sub-band of frequency to each different user to
access the network.
 If FDMA is not in use, the channel is left idle instead of allotting to the other
users.
 FDMA is implemented in Narrowband systems and it is less complex than
TDMA.
 Tight filtering is done here to reduce adjacent channel interference.
 The base station BS and mobile station MS, transmit and receive
simultaneously and continuously in FDMA.
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
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In the cases where continuous transmission is not required, there TDMA is used
instead of FDMA. The features of TDMA include the following.
 TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with several users where each users
makes use of non-overlapping time slots.
 Data transmission in TDMA is not continuous, but occurs in bursts. Hence
handsoff process is simpler.
 TDMA uses different time slots for transmission and reception thus
duplexers are not required.
 TDMA has an advantage that is possible to allocate different numbers of
time slots per frame to different users.
 Bandwidth can be supplied on demand to different users by concatenating
or reassigning time slot based on priority.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
Code division multiple access technique is an example of multiple access where
several transmitters use a single channel to send information simultaneously. Its
features are as follows.
 In CDMA every user uses the full available spectrum instead of getting
allotted by separate frequency.
 CDMA is much recommended for voice and data communications.
 While multiple codes occupy the same channel in CDMA, the users having
same code can communicate with each other.
 CDMA offers more air-space capacity than TDMA.
 The hands-off between base stations is very well handled by CDMA.
Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)
Space division multiple access or spatial division multiple access is a technique
which is MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) architecture and used mostly in
wireless and satellite communication. It has the following features.
 All users can communicate at the same time using the same channel.
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 SDMA is completely free from interference.

 A single satellite can communicate with more satellites receivers of the
same frequency.
 The directional spot-beam antennas are used and hence the base station in
SDMA, can track a moving user.
 Controls the radiated energy for each user in space.
Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
Spread spectrum multiple access (SSMA) uses signals which have a transmission
bandwidth whose magnitude is greater than the minimum required RF
bandwidth.
There are two main types of spread spectrum multiple access techniques −
 Frequency hopped spread spectrum (FHSS)
 Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
This is a digital multiple access system in which the carrier frequencies of the
individual users are varied in a pseudo random fashion within a wideband
channel. The digital data is broken into uniform sized bursts which is then
transmitted on different carrier frequencies.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
This is the most commonly used technology for CDMA. In DS-SS, the message
signal is multiplied by a Pseudo Random Noise Code. Each user is given his own
code word which is orthogonal to the codes of other users and in order to detect
the user, the receiver must know the code word used by the transmitter.
The combinational sequences called as hybrid are also used as another type of
spread spectrum. Time hopping is also another type which is rarely mentioned.
Since many users can share the same spread spectrum bandwidth without
interfering with one another, spread spectrum systems become bandwidth
efficient in a multiple user environment.

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)

This method was developed to decrease the chances of collisions when two or
more stations start sending their signals over the datalink layer. Carrier Sense
multiple access requires that each station first check the state of the
medium before sending.
Vulnerable Time –
Vulnerable time = Propagation time (Tp)

The persistence methods can be applied to help the station take action when the
channel is busy/idle.
1. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) –
In this method, a station monitors the medium after it sends a frame to see if the
transmission was successful. If successful, the station is finished, if not, the frame
is sent again.

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In the diagram, A starts send the first bit of its frame at t1 and since C sees the
channel idle at t2, starts sending its frame at t2. C detects A’s frame at t3 and
aborts transmission. A detects C’s frame at t4 and aborts its transmission.
Transmission time for C’s frame is therefore and for A’s frame
is .
So, the frame transmission time (Tfr) should be at least twice the maximum
propagation time (Tp). This can be deduced when the two stations involved in
collision are maximum distance apart.
Process –
The entire process of collision detection can be explained as follows:

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Throughput and Efficiency – The throughput of CSMA/CD is much greater than

pure or slotted ALOHA.
 For 1-persistent method throughput is 50% when G=1.
 For non-persistent method throughput can go upto 90%.
2. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) –
The basic idea behind CSMA/CA is that the station should be able to receive while
transmitting to detect a collision from different stations. In wired networks, if a
collision has occurred then the energy of received signal almost doubles and the
station can sense the possibility of collision. In case of wireless networks, most of
the energy is used for transmission and the energy of received signal increases by
only 5-10% if a collision occurs. It can’t be used by the station to sense collision.
Therefore CSMA/CA has been specially designed for wireless networks.
These are three types of strategies:
1. InterFrame Space (IFS) – When a station finds the channel busy, it waits for
a period of time called IFS time. IFS can also be used to define the priority
of a station or a frame. Higher the IFS lower is the priority.
2. Contention Window – It is the amount of time divided into slots.A station
which is ready to send frames chooses random number of slots as wait
time.
3. Acknowledgements – The positive acknowledgements and time-out timer
can help guarantee a successful transmission of the frame.
Process –
The entire process for collision avoidance can be explained as follows:

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Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA) means:

Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA) refers to a multiple access strategy
with frames of a fixed number of slots. In case a terminal contains a set of data
packets or speech segments to deliver, it competes to gain access in any free slot.
If it can successfully capture the base station (BS), the terminal acquires
reservation in the associated slots of the next frames, right until it releases the
reservation. In PRMA, adjacent cells make use of distinct carrier frequencies in
line with a cellular reuse plan. The fundamental process of PRMA includes
occupying a time slot only at the time of speech talkspurts and releasing the
channel at the time of silence periods.
Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA)
Although PRMA was previously widely used for speech traffic, it can be used for
data users as well because of its bandwidth efficiency, random access, and
reservation qualities. The flexibility in receiving various traffic bit rates makes
PRMA a fine candidate for multi-rate data traffic.

A benefit of PRMA is that it demands minimal central control. As hand-overs call

for minimum intervention from the base station, an active voice terminal which
moves into another cell drops its slot reservations. Therefore, it has to re-contend
with other terminals to broadcast the left-over voice packets. In addition, the
terminal demands registration with the new base station. The resulting delay can
compel the terminal to lose voice packets, thus degrading its overall performance.

One key benefit of the PRMA protocol is that it can be used in combination with
existing CDMA or TDMA-based systems. It can also be incorporated with the next-
gen WCDMA systems. PRMA-centered protocol is ideal for multimedia traffic due
to its dynamic and flexible bandwidth-allocation process.
PRMA facts:
 TDMA with slotted ALOHA reservation system
 Source rates are 32 kbit/sec
 Frame Duration is 16 msec ( 62.5 frames/sec)
 20 slots per frame
 Channel bit rate is 720 kbit/sec and bandwidth is 720 khz
 576 bits per slot (contains 64 bit overhead)
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 Packet dropping rate is 1%

 Supports data and voice
Access Control in Networking-
 Access Control is a mechanism that controls the access of stations to the
transmission link.
 Broadcast links require the access control mechanism.
 There are various access control methods-

Polling-
In this access control method,
 A polling is conducted in which all the stations willing to send data
participates.
 The polling algorithm chooses one of the stations to send the data.
 The chosen station sends the data to the destination.
 After the chosen station has sent the data, the cycle repeats.
Example-

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Here-
 Tpoll = Time taken for polling
 Tsend = Time taken for sending the data = Transmission delay + Propagation
delay = Tt + Tp
Efficiency-

Efficiency (η) = Useful Time / Total Time

 Useful time = Transmission delay of data packet = Tt

 Useless time = Time wasted during polling + Propagation delay of data
packet = Tpoll + Tp
Thus,

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Advantages-
 Unlike in Time Division Multiplexing, no slot is ever wasted.
 It leads to maximum efficiency and bandwidth utilization.
Disadvantages-
 Time is wasted during polling.
 Link sharing is not fair since each station has the equal probability of
winning in each round.
 Few stations might starve for sending the data.
Important Formulas-
 Efficiency (η) = Tt / (Tpoll + Tt + Tp)
 Effective Bandwidth / Bandwidth Utilization / Throughput = Efficiency(η) x
Bandwidth
 Maximum Available Effective Bandwidth = Total number of stations x
Bandwidth requirement of 1 station
Token Passing
Time Conversions-

In token passing,
 Time may be expressed in seconds, bits or meters.
 To convert the time from one unit to another, we use the following conversion
chart-

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Conversion Chart

Token Passing Terminology-

The following terms are frequently used-

1. Token
2. Ring Latency
3. Cycle Time

1. Token-

 A token is a small message composed of a special bit pattern.

 It represents the permission to send the data packet.
 A station is allowed to transmit a data packet if and only if it possess the token
otherwise not.

2. Ring Latency-

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Time taken by a bit to complete one revolution of the ring is

called as ring latency.

the expression for ring latency.

If-
 Length of the ring = d
 Speed of the bit = v
 Number of stations = N
 Bit delay at each station = b
(Bit delay is the time for which a station holds the bit before
transmitting to the other side)

Then-

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Notes-

 d / v is the propagation delay (Tp) expressed in seconds.

 Generally, bit delay is expressed in bits.
 So, both the terms (d / v and N x b) have different units.
 While calculating the ring latency, both the terms are brought into the
same unit.
 The above conversion chart is used for conversion.

After conversion, we have-

3. Cycle Time-

Time taken by the token to complete one revolution of the

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ring is called as cycle time.

If-

 Length of the ring = d

 Speed of the bit = v
 Number of stations = N
 Token Holding Time = THT

(Token Holding Time is the time for which a station holds the token before
transmitting to the other side)

Then-

Token Passing Access Control Method.

Token Passing-

In this access control method,

 All the stations are logically connected to each other in the form of a ring.
 The access of stations to the transmission link is governed by a token.
 A station is allowed to transmit a data packet if and only if it possess the
token otherwise not.
 Each station passes the token to its neighboring station either clockwise or
anti-clockwise.

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Assumptions-

Token passing method assumes-

 Each station in the ring has the data to send.

 Each station sends exactly one data packet after acquiring the token.

Efficiency-

Efficiency (η) = Useful Time / Total Time

In one cycle,

 Useful time = Sum of transmission delay of N stations since each station

sends 1 data packet = N x Tt
 Total Time = Cycle time = Tp + N x THT

Thus,

Token Holding Time depends on the strategy implemented.

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Token Passing Strategies-

The following 2 strategies are used in token passing-

1. Delayed Token Reinsertion (DTR)

2. Early Token Reinsertion (ETR)

1. Delayed Token Reinsertion-

In this strategy,

 Station keeps holding the token until the last bit of the data packet
transmitted by it takes the complete revolution of the ring and comes back
to it.

Working-

After a station acquires the token,

 It transmits its data packet.

 It holds the token until the data packet reaches back to it.
 After data packet reaches to it, it discards its data packet as its journey is
completed.
 It releases the token.

The following diagram illustrates these steps for station-1. Same procedure is
repeated at every station.

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Token Holding Time-

Token Holding Time (THT) = Transmission delay + Ring

Latency

We know,

 Ring Latency = Tp + N x bit delay

 Assuming bit delay = 0 (in most cases), we get-

Token Holding Time = Tt + Tp

Efficiency-

Substituting THT = Tt + Tp in the efficiency expression, we get-

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2. Early Token Reinsertion-

In this strategy,

 Station releases the token immediately after putting its data packet to be
transmitted on the ring.

Working-

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Step-01: At Station-1:

Station-1

 Acquires the token

 Transmits packet-1
 Releases the token

Step-02: At Station-2:

Station-2

 Receives packet-1
 Transmits packet-1
 Acquires the token
 Transmits packet-2
 Releases the token

Step-03: At Station-3:

Station-3

 Receives packet-1
 Transmits packet-1
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 Receives packet-2
 Transmits packet-2
 Acquires the token
 Transmits packet-3
 Releases the token

Step-04: At Station-4:

Station-4

 Receives packet-1
 Transmits packet-1
 Receives packet-2
 Transmits packet-2
 Receives packet-3
 Transmits packet-3
 Acquires the token
 Transmits packet-4
 Releases the token

Step-05: At Station-1:

 Receives packet-1
 Discards packet-1 (as its journey is completed)
 Receives packet-2
 Transmits packet-2
 Receives packet-3
 Transmits packet-3
 Receives packet-4
 Transmits packet-4
 Acquires the token
 Transmits packet-1 (new)
 Releases the token

In this manner, the cycle continues.

Token Holding Time-

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Token Holding Time (THT) = Transmission delay of data packet = Tt

Efficiency-

Substituting THT = Tt in the efficiency expression, we get-

Differences between DTR and ETR-

Delay Token Retransmission (DTR) Early Token Retransmission (ETR)

Each station releases the token

Each station holds the token until its
immediately after putting its data
data packet reaches back to it.
packet on the ring.

There exists more than one data

There exists only one data packet on
packet on the ring at any given
the ring at any given instance.
instance.

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It is more reliable than ETR. It is less reliable than DTR.

It has low efficiency as compared to It has high efficiency as compared to

ETR. ETR.

Important Notes-

Note-01:

In token passing,

 It is the responsibility of each transmitting station to remove its own data

packet from the ring.

Note-02:

While solving questions,

 If the strategy used is not mentioned, then consider Early Token

Retransmission strategy.

Multi-Access Networks

Developed in the mid-1970s by researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research

Center (PARC), the Ethernet eventually became the dominant local area
networking technology, emerging from a pack of competing technologies. Today,
it competes mainly with 802.11 wireless networks but remains extremely popular
in campus networks and data centers. The more general name for the technology
behind the Ethernet is Carrier Sense, Multiple Access with Collision Detect
(CSMA/CD).

As indicated by the CSMA name, the Ethernet is a multiple-access network,

meaning that a set of nodes sends and receives frames over a shared link. You
can, therefore, think of an Ethernet as being like a bus that has multiple stations
plugged into it. The “carrier sense” in CSMA/CD means that all the nodes can

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distinguish between an idle and a busy link, and “collision detect” means that a
node listens as it transmits and can therefore detect when a frame it is
transmitting has interfered (collided) with a frame transmitted by another node.

The Ethernet has its roots in an early packet radio network, called Aloha,
developed at the University of Hawaii to support computer communication across
the Hawaiian Islands. Like the Aloha network, the fundamental problem faced by
the Ethernet is how to mediate access to a shared medium fairly and efficiently
(in Aloha, the medium was the atmosphere, while in the Ethernet the medium
was originally a coax cable). The core idea in both Aloha and the Ethernet is an
algorithm that controls when each node can transmit.

Modern Ethernet links are now largely point to point; that is, they connect one
host to an Ethernet switch, or they interconnect switches. As a consequence, the
“multiple access” algorithm is not used much in today’s wired Ethernets, but a
variant is now used in wireless networks, such as 802.11 networks (also known as
Wi-Fi). Due to the enormous influence of Ethernet, we chose to describe its classic
algorithm here, and then explain how it has been adapted to Wi-Fi in the next
section. We will also discuss Ethernet switches elsewhere. For now, we’ll focus on
how a single Ethernet link works.

Digital Equipment Corporation and Intel Corporation joined Xerox to define a 10-
Mbps Ethernet standard in 1978. This standard then formed the basis for IEEE
standard 802.3, which additionally defines a much wider collection of physical
media over which an Ethernet can operate, including 100-Mbps, 1-Gbps, 10-Gbps,
40-Gbps, and 100-Gbps versions.

Physical Properties

Ethernet segments were originally implemented using coaxial cable of length up

to 500 m. (Modern Ethernets use twisted copper pairs, usually a particular type
known as “Category 5,” or optical fibers, and in some cases can be quite a lot
longer than 500 m.) This cable was similar to the type used for cable TV. Hosts
connected to an Ethernet segment by tapping into it. A transceiver, a small device
directly attached to the tap, detected when the line was idle and drove the signal
when the host was transmitting. It also received incoming signals. The transceiver,

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in turn, connected to an Ethernet adaptor, which was plugged into the host. This
configuration is shown in Figure 39.

Figure 39. Ethernet transceiver and adaptor.

Multiple Ethernet segments can be joined together by repeaters (or a multi-port

variant of a repeater, called a hub). A repeater is a device that forwards digital
signals, much like an amplifier forwards analog signals; repeaters do not
understand bits or frames. No more than four repeaters could be positioned
between any pair of hosts, meaning that a classical Ethernet had a total reach of
only 2500 m. For example, using just two repeaters between any pair of hosts
supports a configuration similar to the one illustrated in Figure 40; that is, a
segment running down the spine of a building with a segment on each floor.

Figure 40. Ethernet repeater, interconnecting segments to form a larger collision

domain.

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Any signal placed on the Ethernet by a host is broadcast over the entire network;
that is, the signal is propagated in both directions, and repeaters and hubs
forward the signal on all outgoing segments. Terminators attached to the end of
each segment absorb the signal and keep it from bouncing back and interfering
with trailing signals. The original Ethernet specifications used the Manchester
encoding scheme described in an earlier section, while 4B/5B encoding (or the
similar 8B/10B) scheme is used today on higher speed Ethernets.

It is important to understand that whether a given Ethernet spans a single

segment, a linear sequence of segments connected by repeaters, or multiple
segments connected in a star configuration, data transmitted by any one host on
that Ethernet reaches all the other hosts. This is the good news. The bad news is
that all these hosts are competing for access to the same link, and, as a
consequence, they are said to be in the same collision domain. The multi-access
part of the Ethernet is all about dealing with the competition for the link that
arises in a collision domain.

Access Protocol

We now turn our attention to the algorithm that controls access to a shared
Ethernet link. This algorithm is commonly called the Ethernet’s media access
control (MAC). It is typically implemented in hardware on the network adaptor.
We will not describe the hardware per se, but instead focus on the algorithm it
implements. First, however, we describe the Ethernet’s frame format and
addresses.

Frame Format

Each Ethernet frame is defined by the format given in Figure 41. The 64-bit
preamble allows the receiver to synchronize with the signal; it is a sequence of
alternating 0s and 1s. Both the source and destination hosts are identified with a
48-bit address. The packet type field serves as the demultiplexing key; it identifies
to which of possibly many higher-level protocols this frame should be delivered.
Each frame contains up to 1500 bytes of data. Minimally, a frame must contain at
least 46 bytes of data, even if this means the host has to pad the frame before
transmitting it. The reason for this minimum frame size is that the frame must be
long enough to detect a collision; we discuss this more below. Finally, each frame

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includes a 32-bit CRC. Like the HDLC protocol described in an earlier section, the
Ethernet is a bit-oriented framing protocol. Note that from the host’s perspective,
an Ethernet frame has a 14-byte header: two 6-byte addresses and a 2-byte type
field. The sending adaptor attaches the preamble and CRC before transmitting,
and the receiving adaptor removes them.

Figure 41. Ethernet frame format.

Addresses

Each host on an Ethernet—in fact, every Ethernet host in the world—has a unique
Ethernet address. Technically, the address belongs to the adaptor, not the host; it
is usually burned into ROM. Ethernet addresses are typically printed in a form
humans can read as a sequence of six numbers separated by colons. Each number
corresponds to 1 byte of the 6-byte address and is given by a pair of hexadecimal
digits, one for each of the 4-bit nibbles in the byte; leading 0s are dropped. For
example, 8:0:2b:e4:b1:2 is the human-readable representation of Ethernet
address

00001000 00000000 00101011 11100100 10110001 00000010

To ensure that every adaptor gets a unique address, each manufacturer of

Ethernet devices is allocated a different prefix that must be prepended to the
address on every adaptor they build. For example, Advanced Micro Devices has
been assigned the 24-bit prefix 080020 (or 8:0:20). A given manufacturer then
makes sure the address suffixes it produces are unique.

Each frame transmitted on an Ethernet is received by every adaptor connected to

that Ethernet. Each adaptor recognizes those frames addressed to its address and
passes only those frames on to the host. (An adaptor can also be programmed to
run in promiscuous mode, in which case it delivers all received frames to the host,

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but this is not the normal mode.) In addition to these unicast addresses, an
Ethernet address consisting of all 1s is treated as a broadcast address; all adaptors
pass frames addressed to the broadcast address up to the host. Similarly, an
address that has the first bit set to 1 but is not the broadcast address is called
a multicast address. A given host can program its adaptor to accept some set of
multicast addresses. Multicast addresses are used to send messages to some
subset of the hosts on an Ethernet (e.g., all file servers). To summarize, an
Ethernet adaptor receives all frames and accepts

 Frames addressed to its own address

 Frames addressed to the broadcast address
 Frames addressed to a multicast address, if it has been instructed to listen
to that address
 All frames, if it has been placed in promiscuous mode

It passes to the host only the frames that it accepts.

Transmitter Algorithm

As we have just seen, the receiver side of the Ethernet protocol is simple; the real
smarts are implemented at the sender’s side. The transmitter algorithm is defined
as follows.

When the adaptor has a frame to send and the line is idle, it transmits the frame
immediately; there is no negotiation with the other adaptors. The upper bound of
1500 bytes in the message means that the adaptor can occupy the line for only a
fixed length of time.

When an adaptor has a frame to send and the line is busy, it waits for the line to
go idle and then transmits immediately. (To be more precise, all adaptors wait
9.6 μs after the end of one frame before beginning to transmit the next frame.
This is true for both the sender of the first frame as well as those nodes listening
for the line to become idle.) The Ethernet is said to be a 1-persistent protocol
because an adaptor with a frame to send transmits with probability 1 whenever a
busy line goes idle. In general, a p-persistent algorithm transmits with
probability 0≤p≤10≤p≤1 after a line becomes idle and defers with probability q = 1

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- p. The reasoning behind choosing a p<1 is that there might be multiple adaptors
waiting for the busy line to become idle, and we don’t want all of them to begin
transmitting at the same time. If each adaptor transmits immediately with a
probability of, say, 33%, then up to three adaptors can be waiting to transmit and
the odds are that only one will begin transmitting when the line becomes idle.
Despite this reasoning, an Ethernet adaptor always transmits immediately after
noticing that the network has become idle and has been very effective in
doing so.

To complete the story about p-persistent protocols for the case when p<1, you
might wonder how long a sender that loses the coin flip (i.e., decides to defer) has
to wait before it can transmit. The answer for the Aloha network, which originally
developed this style of protocol, was to divide time into discrete slots, with each
slot corresponding to the length of time it takes to transmit a full frame.
Whenever a node has a frame to send and it senses an empty (idle) slot, it
transmits with probability p and defers until the next slot with probability q = 1 -
p. If that next slot is also empty, the node again decides to transmit or defer, with
probabilities p and q, respectively. If that next slot is not empty—that is, some
other station has decided to transmit—then the node simply waits for the next
idle slot and the algorithm repeats.

Returning to our discussion of the Ethernet, because there is no centralized

control it is possible for two (or more) adaptors to begin transmitting at the same
time, either because both found the line to be idle or because both had been
waiting for a busy line to become idle. When this happens, the two (or more)
frames are said to collide on the network. Each sender, because the Ethernet
supports collision detection, is able to determine that a collision is in progress. At
the moment an adaptor detects that its frame is colliding with another, it first
makes sure to transmit a 32-bit jamming sequence and then stops the
transmission. Thus, a transmitter will minimally send 96 bits in the case of a
collision: 64-bit preamble plus 32-bit jamming sequence.

One way that an adaptor will send only 96 bits—which is sometimes called a runt
frame—is if the two hosts are close to each other. Had the two hosts been farther
apart, they would have had to transmit longer, and thus send more bits, before
detecting the collision. In fact, the worst-case scenario happens when the two
hosts are at opposite ends of the Ethernet. To know for sure that the frame it just

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sent did not collide with another frame, the transmitter may need to send as
many as 512 bits. Not coincidentally, every Ethernet frame must be at least
512 bits (64 bytes) long: 14 bytes of header plus 46 bytes of data plus 4 bytes of
CRC.

Why 512 bits? The answer is related to another question you might ask about an
Ethernet: Why is its length limited to only 2500 m? Why not 10 or 1000 km? The
answer to both questions has to do with the fact that the farther apart two nodes
are, the longer it takes for a frame sent by one to reach the other, and the
network is vulnerable to a collision during this time.

Figure 42. Worst-case scenario: (a) A sends a frame at time t; (b) A’s frame arrives
at B at time t+d; (c) B begins transmitting at time t+d and collides with A’s frame;
(d) B’s runt (32-bit) frame arrives at A at time t+2×d.

Figure 42 illustrates the worst-case scenario, where hosts A and B are at opposite
ends of the network. Suppose host A begins transmitting a frame at time t, as

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shown in (a). It takes it one link latency (let’s denote the latency as d) for the
frame to reach host B. Thus, the first bit of A’s frame arrives at B at time t+d, as
shown in (b). Suppose an instant before host A’s frame arrives (i.e., B still sees an
idle line), host B begins to transmit its own frame. B’s frame will immediately
collide with A’s frame, and this collision will be detected by host B (c). Host B will
send the 32-bit jamming sequence, as described above. (B’s frame will be a runt.)
Unfortunately, host A will not know that the collision occurred until B’s frame
reaches it, which will happen one link latency later, at time t+2×d, as shown in (d).
Host A must continue to transmit until this time in order to detect the collision. In
other words, host A must transmit for 2×d to be sure that it detects all possible
collisions. Considering that a maximally configured Ethernet is 2500 m long, and
that there may be up to four repeaters between any two hosts, the round-trip
delay has been determined to be 51.2 μs, which on a 10-Mbps Ethernet
corresponds to 512 bits. The other way to look at this situation is that we need to
limit the Ethernet’s maximum latency to a fairly small value (e.g., 51.2 μs) for the
access algorithm to work; hence, an Ethernet’s maximum length must be
something on the order of 2500 m.

Once an adaptor has detected a collision and stopped its transmission, it waits a
certain amount of time and tries again. Each time it tries to transmit but fails, the
adaptor doubles the amount of time it waits before trying again. This strategy of
doubling the delay interval between each retransmission attempt is a general
technique known as exponential backoff. More precisely, the adaptor first delays
either 0 or 51.2 μs, selected at random. If this effort fails, it then waits 0, 51.2,
102.4, or 153.6 μs (selected randomly) before trying again; this is k × 51.2 for
k=0..3. After the third collision, it waits k × 51.2 for k = 0.23 - 1, again selected at
random. In general, the algorithm randomly selects a k between 0 and 2n - 1 and
waits k × 51.2 μs, where n is the number of collisions experienced so far. The
adaptor gives up after a given number of tries and reports a transmit error to the
host. Adaptors typically retry up to 16 times, although the backoff algorithm
caps n in the above formula at 10.

Longevity of Ethernet

Ethernet has been the dominant local area network technology for over 30 years.
Today it is typically deployed point-to-point rather than tapping into a coax cable,
it often runs at speeds of 1 or 10 Gbps rather than 10 Mbps, and it allows jumbo

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packets with up to 9000 bytes of data rather than 1500 bytes. But, it remains
backwards compatible with the original standard. This makes it worth saying a
few words about why Ethernets have been so successful, so that we can
understand the properties we should emulate with any technology that tries to
replace it.

First, an Ethernet is extremely easy to administer and maintain: There is no

routing or configuration tables to be kept up-to-date, and it is easy to add a new
host to the network. It is hard to imagine a simpler network to administer.
Second, it is inexpensive: cable/fiber is relatively cheap, and the only other cost is
the network adaptor on each host. Ethernet became deeply entrenched for these
reasons, and any switch-based approach that aspired to displace it required
additional investment in infrastructure (the switches), on top of the cost of each
adaptor. The switch-based variant of Ethernet did eventually succeed in replacing
multi-access Ethernet, but this is primarily because it could be deployed
incrementally—with some hosts connected by point-to-point links to switches
while others remained tapped into coax and connected to repeaters or hubs—all
the while retaining the simplicity of network administration.

Backbone
Backbone is most important part of a system which provides the central support
to the rest system, for example backbone of a human body that balance and hold
all the body parts. Similarly in Computer Networks a Backbone Network is as a
Network containing a high capacity connectivity infrastructure that backbone to
the different part of the network.

Actually a backbone network allows multiple LANs to get connected in a backbone

network, not a single station is directly connected to the backbone but the
stations are part of LAN, and backbone connect those LANs.

Backbone LANs:
Because of increasing use of distributed applications and PCs, a new flexible
strategy for LANs has been introduced. if a premises wide data communication
system is to be supported then we need a networking system which can span
over the required distance and which capable of interconnecting all the
equipment in a single building or in a group of buildings.

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It is possible to develop a single LAN for this purpose but practically this scheme
faces the following drawbacks:

1. Poor Reliability:
With a single LAN, the reliability will be poor since a service interruption
even for a short duration can cause major problem to the user.
2. Capacity:
There is a possibility that a single LAN may be saturated due to increase in
number of devices beyond a certain number
3. Cost:
A single LAN can not give its optimum performance for the diverse
requirements of communication and interconnection.

So the alternative for using a single LAN is to use low cost low capacity LANs in
each building or department and then interconnection all these LANs with high
capacity LAN. such a network is called as Backbone LAN. the backbone network
allows several LANs to be connected. in the backbone network, no station is
directly connected with backbone, instead each station is a part a LAN, and the
LANs are connected to the backbone.

The backbone itself is a LAN, it uses a LAN protocol such as ethernet, Hence each
connection in the backbone is itself another LAN. The two very common used
architectures are: Bus backbone, Star backbone. These are explained as following
below.

1. Bus Backbone:
In Bus backbone the topology used for the backbone is bus topology.

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In above the Bus backbone structure is used as a distribution backbone for

connecting different buildings in an organization. each building may have either a
single LAN or another backbone which comes in star backbone. the structure is a
bridge based (bridge is the connecting device) backbone with four LANs.

Working:
In above structure if a station in LAN 2 wants to send a frame to some other
station in Same LAN then Bridge 2 will not allow the frame to pass to any other
LAN, hence this frame will not reach the backbone. If a station from LAN 1 wants
to send a frame to a station in LAN 4 then Bridge 1 passes this frame to the
backbone. This frame is then received by Bridge 4 and delivered to the
destination.

2. Star Backbone:
The topology of this backbone is star topology.

Above figure shows the Star backbone in this configuration, the backbone is
simply a switch which is used to connect various LANs. The switch does the job of
backbone and connect the LANs as well. This type of backbone are basically used
as distribution backbone inside a building.

There is one more category of backbone network is Interconnecting of Remote

LANs:

3. Interconnection of Remote control:

In this type of backbone network the connection are done through the

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bridge called remote bridges which acts as connecting devices in connect

LANs as point to point network link.

Example of point to point networks are leased telephone lines or ADLS lines. Such
a point to point network can be considered as being equivalent ta a LAN without
stations.

Virtual LAN (VLAN)

Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a concept in which we can divide the devices logically on
layer 2 (data link layer). Generally, layer 3 devices divides broadcast domain but
broadcast domain can be divided by switches using the concept of VLAN.

A broadcast domain is a network segment in which if a device broadcast a packet

then all the devices in the same broadcast domain will receive it. The devices in
the same broadcast domain will receive all the broadcast packet but it is limited
to switches only as routers don’t forward out the broadcast packet.To forward
out the packets to different VLAN (from one VLAN to another) or broadcast
domain, inter Vlan routing is needed. Through VLAN, different small size sub
networks are created which are comparatively easy to handle.

VLAN ranges –

 VLAN 0, 4095:These are reserved VLAN which cannot be seen or used.

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 VLAN 1:It is the default VLAN of switches. By default, all switch ports are in
VLAN. This VLAN can’t be deleted or edit but can be used.
 VLAN 2-1001: This is a normal VLAN range. We can create, edit and delete
these VLAN.
 VLAN 1002-1005: These are CISCO defaults for fddi and token rings. These
VLAN can’t be deleted.
 Vlan 1006-4094: This is the extended range of Vlan.

Configuration –
We can simply create VLANs by simply assigning the vlan-id and Vlan name.

 #switch1(config)#vlan 2
 #switch1(config-vlan)#vlan accounts

Here, 2 is the Vlan I’d and accounts is the Vlan name. Now, we assign Vlan to the
switch ports.e.g-

 Switch(config)#int fa0/0
 Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
 Switch(config-if)#switchport access Vlan 2

Also, switchport range can be assigned to required vlans.

 Switch(config)#int range fa0/0-2

 Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
 Switch(config-if) #switchport access Vlan 2

By this, switchport fa0/0, fa0/1, fa0-2 will be assigned Vlan 2.

Example –

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Assigning IP address 192.168.1.1/24, 192.168.1.2/24 and 192.168.2.1/24 to the

PC’s. Now, we will create Vlan 2 and 3 on switch.

 Switch(config)#vlan 2
 Switch(config)#vlan 3

We have made VLANs but the most important part is to assign switch ports to the
VLANs .

 Switch(config)#int fa0/0
 Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
 Switch(config-if) #switchport access Vlan 2

 Switch(config)#int fa0/1
 Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
 Switch(config-if) #switchport access Vlan 3

 Switch(config)#int fa0/2
 Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
 Switch(config-if) #switchport access Vlan 2

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As seen, we have assigned Vlan 2 to fa0/0, fa0/2 and Vlan 3 to fa0/1.

Advantages –

 performance –The network traffic is full of broadcast and multicast. VLAN

reduces the need to send such traffic to unnecessary destination.e.g-If the
traffic is intended for 2 users but as 10 devices are present in the same
broadcast domain therefore all will receive the traffic i.e wastage of
bandwidth but if we make VLANs, then the broadcast or mulicast packet
will go to the intended users only.
 formation of virtual groups – As there are different departments in every
organisation namely sales, finance etc., VLANs can be very useful in order
to group the devices logically according to their departments.
 security – In the same network, sensitive data can be broadcast which can
be accessed by the outsider but by creating VLAN, we can control broadcast
domains, set up firewalls, restrict access. Also, VLANs can be used to inform
the network manager of an intrusion. Hence, VLANs greatly enhance
network security.
 Flexibility – VLAN provide flexibility to add, remove the number of host we
want.
 Cost reduction – VLANs can be used to create broadcast domains which
eliminate the need for expensive routers.
 By using Vlan, the number of small size broadcast domain can be increased
which are easy to handle as compared to a bigger broadcast domain.

There are 5 main types of VLANs depending on the type of the network they
carry:

1. Default VLAN –
When the switch initially starts up, all switch ports become a member of
the default VLAN (generally all switches have default VLAN named as VLAN
1), which makes them all part of the same broadcast domain. Using default
VLAN allows any network device connected to any of the switch port to
connect with other devices on other switch ports. One unique feature of
Default VLAN is that it can’t be rename or delete.
2. Data VLAN –
Data VLAN is used to divide the whole network into 2 groups. One group of

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users and other group of devices. This VLAN also known as a user VLAN, the
data VLAN is used only for user-generated data. This VLAN carrying data
only. It is not used for carrying management traffic or voice.
3. Voice VLAN –
Voice VLAN is configured to carry voice traffic. Voice VLANs are mostly
given high transmission priority over other types of network traffic. To
ensure voice over IP (VoIP) quality (delay of less than 150 milliseconds (ms)
across the network), we must have separate voice VLAN as this will
preserve bandwidth for other applications.
4. Management VLAN –
A management VLAN is configured to access the management capabilities
of a switch (traffic like system logging, monitoring). VLAN 1 is the
management VLAN by default (VLAN 1 would be a bad choice for the
management VLAN). Any of a switch VLAN could be define as the
management VLAN if admin as not configured a unique VLAN to serve as
the management VLAN. This VLAN ensures that bandwidth for
management will be available even when user traffic is high.
5. Native VLAN –
This VLAN identifies traffic coming from each end of a trunk link. A native
VLAN is allocated only to an 802.1Q trunk port. The 802.1Q trunk port
places untagged traffic (traffic that does not come from any VLAN) on the
native VLAN. It is a best to configure the native VLAN as an unused VLAN.

IPv4 vs IPv6

What is IP?

An IP stands for internet protocol. An IP address is assigned to each device

connected to a network. Each device uses an IP address for communication. It
also behaves as an identifier as this address is used to identify the device on a
network. It defines the technical format of the packets. Mainly, both the
networks, i.e., IP and TCP, are combined together, so together, they are referred
to as a TCP/IP. It creates a virtual connection between the source and the
destination.

We can also define an IP address as a numeric address assigned to each device on

a network. An IP address is assigned to each device so that the device on a

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network can be identified uniquely. To facilitate the routing of packets, TCP/IP

protocol uses a 32-bit logical address known as IPv4(Internet Protocol version 4).

An IP address consists of two parts, i.e., the first one is a network address, and the
other one is a host address.

There are two types of IP addresses:

 IPv4
 IPv6

IPv4

IPv4 is a version 4 of IP. It is a current version and the most commonly used IP
address. It is a 32-bit address written in four numbers separated by 'dot', i.e.,
periods. This address is unique for each device.

For example, 66.94.29.13

The above example represents the IP address in which each group of numbers
separated by periods is called an Octet. Each number in an octet is in the range
from 0-255. This address can produce 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses.

In today's computer network world, computers do not understand the IP

addresses in the standard numeric format as the computers understand the
numbers in binary form only. The binary number can be either 1 or 0. The IPv4
consists of four sets, and these sets represent the octet. The bits in each octet
represent a number.

Each bit in an octet can be either 1 or 0. If the bit the 1, then the number it
represents will count, and if the bit is 0, then the number it represents does not
count.

Representation of 8 Bit Octet

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The above representation shows the structure of 8- bit octet.

Now, we will see how to obtain the binary representation of the above IP address,
i.e., 66.94.29.13

Step 1: First, we find the binary number of 66.

To obtain 66, we put 1 under 64 and 2 as the sum of 64 and 2 is equal to 66

(64+2=66), and the remaining bits will be zero, as shown above. Therefore, the
binary bit version of 66 is 01000010.

Step 2: Now, we calculate the binary number of 94.

To obtain 94, we put 1 under 64, 16, 8, 4, and 2 as the sum of these numbers is
equal to 94, and the remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version
of 94 is 01011110.

Step 3: The next number is 29.

To obtain 29, we put 1 under 16, 8, 4, and 1 as the sum of these numbers is equal
to 29, and the remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version of 29 is
00011101.

Step 4: The last number is 13.

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To obtain 13, we put 1 under 8, 4, and 1 as the sum of these numbers is equal to
13, and the remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version of 13 is
00001101.

Drawback of IPv4

Currently, the population of the world is 7.6 billion. Every user is having more
than one device connected with the internet, and private companies also rely on
the internet. As we know that IPv4 produces 4 billion addresses, which are not
enough for each device connected to the internet on a planet. Although the
various techniques were invented, such as variable- length mask, network address
translation, port address translation, classes, inter-domain translation, to
conserve the bandwidth of IP address and slow down the depletion of an IP
address. In these techniques, public IP is converted into a private IP due to which
the user having public IP can also use the internet. But still, this was not so
efficient, so it gave rise to the development of the next generation of IP
addresses, i.e., IPv6.

IPv6

IPv4 produces 4 billion addresses, and the developers think that these addresses
are enough, but they were wrong. IPv6 is the next generation of IP addresses. The
main difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the address size of IP addresses. The
IPv4 is a 32-bit address, whereas IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address. IPv6
provides a large address space, and it contains a simple header as compared to
IPv4.

It provides transition strategies that convert IPv4 into IPv6, and these strategies
are as follows:

o Dual stacking: It allows us to have both the versions, i.e., IPv4 and IPv6, on
the same device.

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o Tunneling: In this approach, all the users have IPv6 communicates with an
IPv4 network to reach IPv6.
o Network Address Translation: The translation allows the communication
between the hosts having a different version of IP.

This hexadecimal address contains both numbers and alphabets. Due to the usage
of both the numbers and alphabets, IPv6 is capable of producing over 340
undecillion (3.4*1038) addresses.

IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address made up of 8 sets of 16 bits each, and these
8 sets are separated by a colon. In IPv6, each hexadecimal character represents 4
bits. So, we need to convert 4 bits to a hexadecimal number at a time

Address format

The address format of IPv4:

The address format of IPv6:

The above diagram shows the address format of IPv4 and IPv6. An IPv4 is a 32-bit
decimal address. It contains 4 octets or fields separated by 'dot', and each field is
8-bit in size. The number that each field contains should be in the range of 0-255.
Whereas an IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address. It contains 8 fields separated
by a colon, and each field is 16-bit in size.

Differences between IPv4 and IPv6

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Ipv4 Ipv6

Address length IPv4 is a 32-bit address. IPv6 is a 128-bit address.

Fields IPv4 is a numeric address that IPv6 is an alphanumeric

consists of 4 fields which are address that consists of 8
separated by dot (.). fields, which are separated
by colon.

Classes IPv4 has 5 different classes of IPv6 does not contain

IP address that includes Class classes of IP addresses.
A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and
Class E.

Number of IP IPv4 has a limited number of IPv6 has a large number of

address IP addresses. IP addresses.

VLSM It supports VLSM (Virtual It does not support VLSM.

Length Subnet Mask). Here,
VLSM means that Ipv4
converts IP addresses into a
subnet of different sizes.

Address It supports manual and DHCP It supports manual, DHCP,

configuration configuration. auto-configuration, and
renumbering.

Address space It generates 4 billion unique It generates 340

addresses undecillion unique
addresses.

End-to-end In IPv4, end-to-end connection In the case of IPv6, end-to-

connection integrity is unachievable. end connection integrity is
integrity achievable.

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Security features In IPv4, security depends on In IPv6, IPSEC is developed

the application. This IP for security purposes.
address is not developed in
keeping the security feature in
mind.

Address In IPv4, the IP address is In IPv6, the representation

representation represented in decimal. of the IP address in
hexadecimal.

Fragmentation Fragmentation is done by the Fragmentation is done by

senders and the forwarding the senders only.
routers.

Packet flow It does not provide any It uses flow label field in
identification mechanism for packet flow the header for the packet
identification. flow identification.

Checksum field The checksum field is available The checksum field is not
in IPv4. available in IPv6.

Transmission IPv4 is broadcasting. On the other hand, IPv6 is

scheme multicasting, which
provides efficient network
operations.

Encryption and It does not provide encryption It provides encryption and

Authentication and authentication. authentication.

Number of It consists of 4 octets. It consists of 8 fields, and

octets each field contains 2
octets. Therefore, the total
number of octets in IPv6 is
16.

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Classful Addressing

IP address is an address having information about how to reach a specific host,

especially outside the LAN. An IP address is a 32 bit unique address having an
address space of 232.
Generally, there are two notations in which IP address is written, dotted decimal
notation and hexadecimal notation.

Dotted Decimal Notation:

Hexadecimal Notation:

Some points to be noted about dotted decimal notation:

1. The value of any segment (byte) is between 0 and 255 (both included).
2. There are no zeroes preceding the value in any segment (054 is wrong, 54 is
correct).

Classful Addressing
The 32 bit IP address is divided into five sub-classes. These are:

 Class A
 Class B
 Class C

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 Class D
 Class E

Each of these classes has a valid range of IP addresses. Classes D and E are
reserved for multicast and experimental purposes respectively. The order of bits
in the first octet determine the classes of IP address.
IPv4 address is divided into two parts:

 Network ID
 Host ID

The class of IP address is used to determine the bits used for network ID and host
ID and the number of total networks and hosts possible in that particular class.
Each ISP or network administrator assigns IP address to each device that is
connected to its network.

Note: IP addresses are globally managed by Internet Assigned Numbers

Authority(IANA) and regional Internet registries(RIR).

Note: While finding the total number of host IP addresses, 2 IP addresses are not
counted and are therefore, decreased from the total count because the first IP
address of any network is the network number and whereas the last IP address is
reserved for broadcast IP.

Class A:

IP address belonging to class A are assigned to the networks that contain a large
number of hosts.

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 The network ID is 8 bits long.

 The host ID is 24 bits long.

The higher order bit of the first octet in class A is always set to 0. The remaining 7
bits in first octet are used to determine network ID. The 24 bits of host ID are
used to determine the host in any network. The default subnet mask for class A is
255.x.x.x. Therefore, class A has a total of:

 2^7-2= 126 network ID(Here 2 address is subracted because 0.0.0.0 and

127.x.y.z are special address. )
 2^24 – 2 = 16,777,214 host ID

IP addresses belonging to class A ranges from 1.x.x.x – 126.x.x.x

Class B:

IP address belonging to class B are assigned to the networks that ranges from
medium-sized to large-sized networks.

 The network ID is 16 bits long.

 The host ID is 16 bits long.

The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class B are always set to
10. The remaining 14 bits are used to determine network ID. The 16 bits of host ID
is used to determine the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class B
is 255.255.x.x. Class B has a total of:

 2^14 = 16384 network address

 2^16 – 2 = 65534 host address

IP addresses belonging to class B ranges from 128.0.x.x – 191.255.x.x.

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Class C:

IP address belonging to class C are assigned to small-sized networks.

 The network ID is 24 bits long.

 The host ID is 8 bits long.

The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class C are always set to
110. The remaining 21 bits are used to determine network ID. The 8 bits of host ID
is used to determine the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class C
is 255.255.255.x. Class C has a total of:


2^21 = 2097152 network address
 2^8 – 2 = 254 host address

IP addresses belonging to class C ranges from 192.0.0.x – 223.255.255.x.

Class D:

IP address belonging to class D are reserved for multi-casting. The higher order
bits of the first octet of IP addresses belonging to class D are always set to 1110.
The remaining bits are for the address that interested hosts recognize.

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Class D does not posses any sub-net mask. IP addresses belonging to class D
ranges from 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255.

Class E:

IP addresses belonging to class E are reserved for experimental and research

purposes. IP addresses of class E ranges from 240.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.254. This
class doesn’t have any sub-net mask. The higher order bits of first octet of class E
are always set to 1111.

Range of special IP addresses:

169.254.0.0 – 169.254.0.16 : Link local addresses

127.0.0.0 – 127.0.0.8 : Loop-back addresses
0.0.0.0 – 0.0.0.8 : used to communicate within the current network.

Rules for assigning Host ID:

Host ID’s are used to identify a host within a network. The host ID are assigned
based on the following rules:


Within any network, the host ID must be unique to that network.
 Host ID in which all bits are set to 0 cannot be assigned because this
host ID is used to represent the network ID of the IP address.

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 Host ID in which all bits are set to 1 cannot be assigned because this
host ID is reserved as a broadcast address to send packets to all the
hosts present on that particular network.

Rules for assigning Network ID:

Hosts that are located on the same physical network are identified by the network
ID, as all host on the same physical network is assigned the same network ID. The
network ID is assigned based on the following rules:

 The network ID cannot start with 127 because 127 belongs to class A
address and is reserved for internal loop-back functions.
 All bits of network ID set to 1 are reserved for use as an IP broadcast
address and therefore, cannot be used.
 All bits of network ID set to 0 are used to denote a specific host on
the local network and are not routed and therefore, aren’t used.

Problems with Classful Addressing:

The problem with this classful addressing method is that millions of class A
address are wasted, many of the class B address are wasted, whereas, number of
addresses available in class C is so small that it cannot cater the needs of
organizations. Class D addresses are used for multicast routing and are therefore
available as a single block only. Class E addresses are reserved.

Classless Addressing

Network Address and Mask

Network address – It identifies a network on internet. Using this, we can find

range of addresses in the network and total possible number of hosts in the
network.

Mask – It is a 32-bit binary number that gives the network address in the address
block when AND operation is bitwise applied on the mask and any IP address of
the block.

The default mask in different classes are :

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Class A – 255.0.0.0

Class B – 255.255.0.0

Class C – 255.255.255.0

Example : Given IP address 132.6.17.85 and default class B mask, find the
beginning address (network address).

Solution : The default mask is 255.255.0.0, which means that the only the first 2
bytes are preserved and the other 2 bytes are set to 0. Therefore, the network
address is 132.6.0.0.

Subnetting: Dividing a large block of addresses into several contiguous sub-blocks

and assigning these sub-blocks to different smaller networks is called subnetting.
It is a practice that is widely used when classless addressing is done.

Classless Addressing

To reduce the wastage of IP addresses in a block, we use sub-netting. What we do

is that we use host id bits as net id bits of a classful IP address. We give the IP
address and define the number of bits for mask along with it (usually followed by
a ‘/’ symbol), like, 192.168.1.1/28. Here, subnet mask is found by putting the
given number of bits out of 32 as 1, like, in the given address, we need to put 28
out of 32 bits as 1 and the rest as 0, and so, the subnet mask would be
255.255.255.240.

Some values calculated in subnetting :

1. Number of subnets : Given bits for mask – No. of bits in default mask

2. Subnet address : AND result of subnet mask and the given IP address

3. Broadcast address : By putting the host bits as 1 and retaining the network bits
as in the IP address

4. Number of hosts per subnet : 2(32 – Given bits for mask) – 2

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5. First Host ID : Subnet address + 1 (adding one to the binary representation of

the subnet address)

6. Last Host ID : Subnet address + Number of Hosts

Example : Given IP Address – 172.16.0.0/25, find the number of subnets and the
number of hosts per subnet. Also, for the first subnet block, find the subnet
address, first host ID, last host ID and broadcast address.

Solution : This is a class B address. So, no. of subnets = 2(25-16) = 29 = 512.

No. of hosts per subnet = 2(32-25) – 2 = 27 – 2 = 128 – 2 = 126

For the first subnet block, we have subnet address = 0.0, first host id = 0.1, last
host id = 0.126 and broadcast address = 0.127

IPv4 Datagram Header

IPv4 is a connectionless protocol for a packet- switching network that uses the
datagram approach. This means that each datagram is handled independently,
and each datagram can follow a different route to the destination.

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Packets in the IPv4 layer are called datagrams. A datagram is a variable-length

packet consisting of two parts: header and data. The header is 20 to 60 bytes in
length and contains information essential to routing.

 Version (VER): This 4-bit field defines the version of the IPv4 protocol.
Currently, the version is 4. However, version 6 (or IPng) may totally replace
version 4 in the future.

 Header length (HLEN): This 4-bit field defines the total length of the
datagram header in 4-byte words. This field is needed because the length
of the header is variable (between 20 and 60 bytes).

 Services: IETF has changed the interpretation and name of this 8-bit field.
This field, previously called service type, is now called differentiated
services.

 Type of service: Low Delay, High Throughput, Reliability (8 bits)

 Total Length: Length of header + Data (16 bits), which has a minimum value
20 Bytes and the maximum is 65,535 bytes

 Identification: Unique Packet Id for identifying the group of fragments of a

single IP datagram (16 bits)

 Flags: 3 flags of 1 bit each: reserved bit (must be zero), do not fragment
flag, more fragments flag (same order)

 Fragment Offset: Specified in terms of number of 8 bytes, which has the

maximum value of 65,528 bytes

 Time to live: Datagram’s lifetime (8 bits), It prevents the datagram to loop

in the network

 Protocol: Name of the protocol to which the data is to be passed (8 bits)

 Header Checksum: 16 bits header checksum for checking errors in the

datagram header

 Source IP address: 32 bits IP address of the sender

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 Destination IP address: 32 bits IP address of the receiver

 Option: Optional information such as source route. Due to the presence of

options, the size of the datagram header can be of variable length (20 bytes
to 60 bytes).

Fragmentation

Fragmentation is done by the network layer when the maximum size of datagram
is greater than maximum size of data that can be held a frame i.e., its Maximum
Transmission Unit (MTU). The network layer divides the datagram received from
transport layer into fragments so that data flow is not disrupted.

 Since there are 16 bits for total length in IP header so, maximum size of IP
datagram = 216 – 1 = 65, 535 bytes.

 It is done by network layer at the destination side and is usually done at

routers.
 Source side does not require fragmentation due to wise (good)
segmentation by transport layer i.e. instead of doing segmentation at
transport layer and fragmentation at network layer, the transport layer
looks at datagram data limit and frame data limit and does segmentation in
such a way that resulting data can easily fit in a frame without the need of
fragmentation.

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 Receiver identifies the frame with the identification (16 bits) field in IP
header. Each fragment of a frame has same identification number.
 Receiver identifies sequence of frames using the fragment offset(13
bits) field in IP header
 An overhead at network layer is present due to extra header introduced
due to fragmentation.

Fields in IP header for fragmentation –

 Identification (16 bits) – use to identify fragments of same frame.

 Fragment offset (13 bits) – use to identify sequence of fragments in the
frame. It generally indicates number of data bytes preceeding or ahead of
the fragment.
Maximum fragment offset possible = (65535 – 20) – 1 = 65514
{where 65535 is maximum size of datagram and 20 is minimum size of IP
header}

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So, we need ceil(log265514) = 16 bits for fragment offset but fragment

offset field has only 13 bits. So, to represent efficiently we need to scale
down fragment offset field by 216/213 = 8 which acts as a scaling factor.
Hence, all fragments except the last fragment should have data in multiples
of 8 so that fragment offset ∈ N.
 More fragments (MF = 1 bit) – tells if more fragments ahead of this
fragment i.e. if MF = 1, more fragments are ahead of this fragment and if
MF = 0, it is the last fragment.
 Don’t fragment (DF = 1 bit) – if we don’t want the packet to be fragmented
then DF is set i.e. DF = 1.

Reassembly of Fragments –

It takes place only at destination and not at routers since packets take
independent path(datagram packet switching), so all may not meet at a router
and hence a need of fragmentation may arise again. The fragments may arrive out
of order also.

Algorithm –

1. Destination should identify that datagram is fragmented from MF,

Fragment offset field.

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2. Destination should identify all fragments belonging to same datagram from

Identification field.
3. Identify the 1st fragment(offset = 0).
4. Identify subsequent fragment using header length, fragment offset.
5. Repeat until MF = 0.

Efficiency –

Efficiency (e) = useful/total = (Data without header)/(Data with header)

Throughput = e * B { where B is bottleneck bandwidth }

Example – An IP router with a Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of 200 bytes

has received an IP packet of size 520 bytes with an IP header of length 20 bytes.
The values of the relevant fields in the IP header.

Explanation – Since MTU is 200 bytes and 20 bytes is header size so, maximum
length of data = 180 bytes but it can be represented in fragment offset since not
divisible by 8 so, maximum length of data feasible = 176 bytes.
Number of fragments = (520/200) = 3.
Header length = 5 (since scaling factor is 4 therefore, 20/4 = 5)
Efficiency, e = (Data without header)/(Data with header) = 500/560 = 89.2 %

So, as far as the algorithm goes, IP header checksum is : 16 bit one’s complement
of the one’s complement sum of all 16 bit words in the header

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This means that if we divide the IP header is 16 bit words and sum each of them
up and then finally do a one’s compliment of the sum then the value generated
out of this operation would be the checksum.

Now, the above is done at the source side which is sending the data packet. At
the destination side which receives the data packet replaces the checksum value
in the header with all zeros and then calculates the checksum based on the same
algorithm as mentioned above. After a checksum value is obtained then this value
is compared with the value that came in the header. This comparison decides
whether the IP header is fine or corrupted.

IPv6 Packet Header Format

The IPv6 protocol defines a set of headers, including the basic IPv6 header and
the IPv6 extension headers. The following figure shows the fields that appear in
the IPv6 header and the order in which the fields appear.

Figure 11-3 IPv6 Basic Header Format

The following list describes the function of each header field.

 Version – 4-bit version number of Internet Protocol = 6.

 Traffic class – 8-bit traffic class field.
 Flow label – 20-bit field.

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 Payload length – 16-bit unsigned integer, which is the rest of the packet
that follows the IPv6 header, in octets.
 Next header – 8-bit selector. Identifies the type of header that immediately
follows the IPv6 header. Uses the same values as the IPv4 protocol field.
 Hop limit – 8-bit unsigned integer. Decremented by one by each node that
forwards the packet. The packet is discarded if the hop limit is decremented
to zero.
 Source address – 128 bits. The address of the initial sender of the packet.
 Destination address – 128 bits. The address of the intended recipient of the
packet. The intended recipient is not necessarily the recipient if an optional
routing header is present.

IPv6 Extension Headers

IPv6 options are placed in separate extension headers that are located between
the IPv6 header and the transport-layer header in a packet. Most IPv6 extension
headers are not examined or processed by any router along a packet's delivery
path until the packet arrives at its final destination. This feature provides a major
improvement in router performance for packets that contain options. In IPv4, the
presence of any options requires the router to examine all options.

Unlike IPv4 options, IPv6 extension headers can be of arbitrary length. Also, the
number of options that a packet carries is not limited to 40 bytes. This feature, in
addition to the manner in which IPv6 options are processed, permits IPv6 options
to be used for functions that are not practical in IPv4.

To improve performance when handling subsequent option headers, and the

transport protocol that follows, IPv6 options are always an integer multiple of 8
octets long. The integer multiple of 8 octets retains the alignment of subsequent
headers.

The following IPv6 extension headers are currently defined:

 Routing – Extended routing, such as IPv4 loose source route

 Fragmentation – Fragmentation and reassembly
 Authentication – Integrity and authentication, and security
 Encapsulating Security Payload – Confidentiality
 Hop-by-Hop options – Special options that require hop-by-hop processing
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 Destination options – Optional information to be examined by the

destination node

Mapping Logical to Physical Address: ARP

Anytime a host or a router has an IP datagram to send to another host or router,

it has the logical (IP) address of the receiver. The logical (IP) address is obtained
from the DNS if the sender is the host or it is found in a routing table if the sender
is a router. But the IP datagram must be encapsulated in a frame to be able to
pass through the physical network. This means that the sender needs the physical
address of the receiver. The host or the router sends an ARP query packet. The
packet includes the physical and IP addresses of the sender and the IP address of
the receiver. Because the sender does not know the physical address of the
receiver, the query is broadcast over the network.

1. Cache Memory

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Using ARP is inefficient if system A needs to broadcast an ARP request for each IP
packet it needs to send to system B. It could have broadcast the IP packet itself.
ARP can be useful if the ARP reply is cached because a system normally sends
several packets to the same destination. A system that receives an ARP reply
stores the mapping in the cache memory and

keeps it for 20 to 30 minutes unless the space in the cache is exhausted. Before
sending an ARP request, the system first checks its cache to see if it can find the
mapping.

2. Packet Format

The fields are as follows:

Hardware type: This is a 16-bit field defining the type of the network on which
ARP isrunning. Each LAN has been assigned an integer based on its type. For
example, Ethernet is given type 1. ARP can be used on any physical network

Protocol type: This is a 16-bit field defining the protocol. For example, the value
of thisfield for the IPv4 protocol is 080016, ARP can be used with any higher-level
protocol.

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Hardware length: This is an 8-bit field defining the length of the physical address
inbytes. For example, for Ethernet the value is 6.

Protocol length: This is an 8-bit field defining the length of the logical address in
bytes.For example, for the IPv4 protocol the value is 4.

Operation: This is a 16-bit field defining the type of packet. Two packet types
aredefined: ARP request (1) and ARP reply (2).

Sender hardware address: This is a variable-length field defining the physical

addressof the sender. For example, for Ethernet this field is 6 bytes long.

Sender protocol address: This is a variable-length field defining the logical

(forexample, IP) address of the sender. For the IP protocol, this field is 4 bytes
long.

Target hardware address: This is a variable-length field defining the physical

addressof the target. For example, for Ethernet this field is 6 bytes long. For an
ARP request message, this field is alIOs because the sender does not know the
physical address of the target.

Target protocol address: This is a variable-length field defining the logical

(forexample, IP) address of the target. For the IPv4 protocol, this field is 4 bytes
long.

3. Encapsulation

An ARP packet is encapsulated directly into a data link frame. For example, an
ARP packet is encapsulated in an Ethernet frame. Note that the type field
indicates that the data carried by the frame are an ARP packet

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Operation

The steps involved in an ARP process:

1. The sender knows the IP address of the target.

2. IP asks ARP to create an ARP request message, filling in the sender physical
address, the sender IP address, and the target IP address. The target physical
address field is filled with 0s.

3. The message is passed to the data link layer where it is encapsulated in a frame
by using the physical address of the sender as the source address and the physical
broadcast address as the destination address.

4. Every host or router receives the frame. Because the frame contains a
broadcast destination address, all stations remove the message and pass it to
ARP. All machines except the one targeted drop the packet. The target machine
recognizes its IP address.

5. The target machine replies with an ARP reply message that contains its physical
address. The message is unicast.

6. The sender receives the reply message. It now knows the physical address of
the target machine.

7. The IP datagram, which carries data for the target machine, is now
encapsulated in a frame and is unicast to the destination.

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4. Four Different Cases:

The following are four different cases in which the services of ARP can be used

1. The sender is a host and wants to send a packet to another host on the same
network. In this case, the logical address that must be mapped to a physical
address is the destination IP address in the datagram header.

2. The sender is a host and wants to send a packet to another host on another
network. In this case, the host looks at its routing table and finds the IP address of
the next hop (router) for this destination. If it does not have a routing table, it
looks for the IP address of the default router. The IP address of the router
becomes the logical address that must be mapped to a physical address.

3. The sender is a router that has received a datagram destined for a host on
another network. It checks its routing table and finds the IP address of the next

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router. The IP address of the next router becomes the logical address that must
be mapped to a physical address.

4. The sender is a router that has received a datagram destined for a host on the
same network. The destination IP address of the datagram becomes the logical
address that must be mapped to a physical address.

Example 3.17

A host with IP addresses 130.23.43.20 and physical address B2:34:55: 10:22: 10

has a packet to send to another host with IP address 130.23.43.25 and physical
address A4:6E:F4:59:83:AB. The two hosts are on the same Ethernet network.
Show the ARP request and reply packets encapsulated in Ethernet frames.

Solution

The ARP request and reply packets. Note that the ARP data field in this case is 28
bytes, and that the individual addresses do not fit in the 4-byte boundary. That is
why we do not show the regular 4-byte boundaries for these addresses.

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5. Proxy ARP

A technique called proxy ARP is used to create a subnetting effect. A proxy ARP is
an ARP that acts on behalf of a set of hosts. Whenever a router running a proxy
ARP receives an ARP request looking for the IP address of one of these hosts, the
router sends an ARP reply announcing its own hardware (physical) address. After
the router receives the actual IP packet, it sends the packet to the appropriate
host or router. Let us give an example.

However, the administrator may need to create a subnet without changing the
whole system to recognize subnetted addresses. One solution is to add a router
running a proxy ARP. In this case, the router acts on behalf of all the hosts
installed on the subnet. When it receives an ARP request with a target IP address
that matches the address of one of its proteges (141.23.56.21, 141.23.56.22, or
141.23.56.23), it sends an ARP reply and announces its hardware address as the
target hardware address. When the router receives the IP packet, it sends the
packet to the appropriate host. This may happen in two cases:

1. A diskless station is just booted. The station can find its physical address by
checking its interface, but it does not know its IP address.

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2. An organization does not have enough IP addresses to assign to each

station; it needs to assign IP addresses on demand. The station can send its
physical address and ask for a short time lease.

Direct Versus Indirect Delivery

Delivery

The network layer supervises the handling of the packets by the underlying
physical networks. We define this handling as the delivery of a packet.

Direct Versus Indirect Delivery

The delivery of a packet to its final destination is accomplished by using two

different methods of delivery, direct and indirect

Direct Delivery

In a direct delivery, the final destination of the packet is a host connected to the
same physical network as the deliverer. Direct delivery occurs when the source
and destination of the packet are located on the same physical network or when
the delivery is between the last router and the destination host. The sender can
easily determine if the delivery is direct. It can extract the network address of the

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destination (using the mask) and compare this address with the addresses of the
networks to which it is connected. If a match is found, the delivery is direct.

Indirect Delivery

If the destination host is not on the same network as the deliverer, the packet is
delivered indirectly. In an indirect delivery, the packet goes from router to router
until it reaches the one connected to the same physical network as its final
destination.

Routing

o A Router is a process of selecting path along which the data can be

transferred from source to the destination. Routing is performed by a
special device known as a router.
o A Router works at the network layer in the OSI model and internet layer in
TCP/IP model
o A router is a networking device that forwards the packet based on the
information available in the packet header and forwarding table.
o The routing algorithms are used for routing the packets. The routing
algorithm is nothing but a software responsible for deciding the optimal
path through which packet can be transmitted.
o The routing protocols use the metric to determine the best path for the
packet delivery. The metric is the standard of measurement such as hop
count, bandwidth, delay, current load on the path, etc. used by the routing
algorithm to determine the optimal path to the destination.
o The routing algorithm initializes and maintains the routing table for the
process of path determination.

Routing Metrics and Costs

Routing metrics and costs are used for determining the best route to the
destination. The factors used by the protocols to determine the shortest path,
these factors are known as a metric.

Metrics are the network variables used to determine the best route to the
destination. For some protocols use the static metrics means that their value

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cannot be changed and for some other routing protocols use the dynamic metrics
means that their value can be assigned by the system administrator.

The most common metric values are given below:

o Hop count: Hop count is defined as a metric that specifies the number of
passes through internetworking devices such as a router, a packet must
travel in a route to move from source to the destination. If the routing
protocol considers the hop as a primary metric value, then the path with
the least hop count will be considered as the best path to move from
source to the destination.
o Delay: It is a time taken by the router to process, queue and transmit a
datagram to an interface. The protocols use this metric to determine the
delay values for all the links along the path end-to-end. The path having the
lowest delay value will be considered as the best path.
o Bandwidth: The capacity of the link is known as a bandwidth of the link.
The bandwidth is measured in terms of bits per second. The link that has a
higher transfer rate like gigabit is preferred over the link that has the lower
capacity like 56 kb. The protocol will determine the bandwidth capacity for
all the links along the path, and the overall higher bandwidth will be
considered as the best route.
o Load: Load refers to the degree to which the network resource such as a
router or network link is busy. A Load can be calculated in a variety of ways
such as CPU utilization, packets processed per second. If the traffic
increases, then the load value will also be increased. The load value
changes with respect to the change in the traffic.
o Reliability: Reliability is a metric factor may be composed of a fixed value. It
depends on the network links, and its value is measured dynamically. Some
networks go down more often than others. After network failure, some
network links repaired more easily than other network links. Any reliability
factor can be considered for the assignment of reliability ratings, which are
generally numeric values assigned by the system administrator.

Types of Routing

Routing can be classified into three categories:

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o Static Routing
o Default Routing
o Dynamic Routing

Static Routing

o Static Routing is also known as Nonadaptive Routing.

o It is a technique in which the administrator manually adds the routes in a
routing table.
o A Router can send the packets for the destination along the route defined
by the administrator.
o In this technique, routing decisions are not made based on the condition or
topology of the networks

Advantages Of Static Routing

Following are the advantages of Static Routing:

o No Overhead: It has ho overhead on the CPU usage of the router.

Therefore, the cheaper router can be used to obtain static routing.
o Bandwidth: It has not bandwidth usage between the routers.
o Security: It provides security as the system administrator is allowed only to
have control over the routing to a particular network.

Disadvantages of Static Routing:

Following are the disadvantages of Static Routing:

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o For a large network, it becomes a very difficult task to add each route
manually to the routing table.
o The system administrator should have a good knowledge of a topology as
he has to add each route manually.

Default Routing

o Default Routing is a technique in which a router is configured to send all the

packets to the same hop device, and it doesn't matter whether it belongs to
a particular network or not. A Packet is transmitted to the device for which
it is configured in default routing.
o Default Routing is used when networks deal with the single exit point.
o It is also useful when the bulk of transmission networks have to transmit
the data to the same hp device.
o When a specific route is mentioned in the routing table, the router will
choose the specific route rather than the default route. The default route is
chosen only when a specific route is not mentioned in the routing table.

Dynamic Routing

o It is also known as Adaptive Routing.

o It is a technique in which a router adds a new route in the routing table for
each packet in response to the changes in the condition or topology of the
network.
o Dynamic protocols are used to discover the new routes to reach the
destination.
o In Dynamic Routing, RIP and OSPF are the protocols used to discover the
new routes.
o If any route goes down, then the automatic adjustment will be made to
reach the destination.

The Dynamic protocol should have the following features:

o All the routers must have the same dynamic routing protocol in order to
exchange the routes.
o If the router discovers any change in the condition or topology, then router
broadcast this information to all other routers.

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Advantages of Dynamic Routing:

o It is easier to configure.
o It is more effective in selecting the best route in response to the changes in
the condition or topology.

Disadvantages of Dynamic Routing:

o It is more expensive in terms of CPU and bandwidth usage.

o It is less secure as compared to default and static routing.

Routing algorithm

o In order to transfer the packets from source to the destination, the network
layer must determine the best route through which packets can be
transmitted.
o Whether the network layer provides datagram service or virtual circuit
service, the main job of the network layer is to provide the best route. The
routing protocol provides this job.
o The routing protocol is a routing algorithm that provides the best path from
the source to the destination. The best path is the path that has the "least-
cost path" from source to the destination.
o Routing is the process of forwarding the packets from source to the
destination but the best route to send the packets is determined by the
routing algorithm.

Classification of a Routing algorithm

The Routing algorithm is divided into two categories:

o Adaptive Routing algorithm

o Non-adaptive Routing algorithm

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Adaptive Routing algorithm

o An adaptive routing algorithm is also known as dynamic routing algorithm.

o This algorithm makes the routing decisions based on the topology and
network traffic.
o The main parameters related to this algorithm are hop count, distance and
estimated transit time.

An adaptive routing algorithm can be classified into three parts:

o Centralized algorithm: It is also known as global routing algorithm as it

computes the least-cost path between source and destination by using
complete and global knowledge about the network. This algorithm takes
the connectivity between the nodes and link cost as input, and this
information is obtained before actually performing any calculation. Link
state algorithm is referred to as a centralized algorithm since it is aware of
the cost of each link in the network.
o Isolation algorithm: It is an algorithm that obtains the routing information
by using local information rather than gathering information from other
nodes.
o Distributed algorithm: It is also known as decentralized algorithm as it
computes the least-cost path between source and destination in an
iterative and distributed manner. In the decentralized algorithm, no node
has the knowledge about the cost of all the network links. In the beginning,
a node contains the information only about its own directly attached links
and through an iterative process of calculation computes the least-cost
path to the destination. A Distance vector algorithm is a decentralized

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algorithm as it never knows the complete path from source to the

destination, instead it knows the direction through which the packet is to
be forwarded along with the least cost path.

Non-Adaptive Routing algorithm

o Non Adaptive routing algorithm is also known as a static routing algorithm.

o When booting up the network, the routing information stores to the
routers.
o Non Adaptive routing algorithms do not take the routing decision based on
the network topology or network traffic.

The Non-Adaptive Routing algorithm is of two types:

Flooding: In case of flooding, every incoming packet is sent to all the outgoing
links except the one from it has been reached. The disadvantage of flooding is
that node may contain several copies of a particular packet.

Random walks: In case of random walks, a packet sent by the node to one of its
neighbors randomly. An advantage of using random walks is that it uses the
alternative routes very efficiently.

Differences b/w Adaptive and Non-Adaptive Routing Algorithm

Basis Of Adaptive Routing Non-Adaptive Routing

Comparison algorithm algorithm

Define Adaptive Routing algorithm The Non-Adaptive Routing

is an algorithm that algorithm is an algorithm that
constructs the routing table constructs the static table to
based on the network determine which node to send
conditions. the packet.

Usage Adaptive routing algorithm The Non-Adaptive Routing

is used by dynamic routing. algorithm is used by static
routing.

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Routing Routing decisions are made Routing decisions are the static
decision based on topology and tables.
network traffic.

Categorization The types of adaptive The types of Non Adaptive

routing algorithm, are routing algorithm are flooding
Centralized, isolation and and random walks.
distributed algorithm.

Complexity Adaptive Routing algorithms Non-Adaptive Routing

are more complex. algorithms are simple.

TCP

TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. It is a transport layer protocol that
facilitates the transmission of packets from source to destination. It is a
connection-oriented protocol that means it establishes the connection prior to
the communication that occurs between the computing devices in a network. This
protocol is used with an IP protocol, so together, they are referred to as a TCP/IP.

The main functionality of the TCP is to take the data from the application layer.
Then it divides the data into a several packets, provides numbering to these
packets, and finally transmits these packets to the destination. The TCP, on the
other side, will reassemble the packets and transmits them to the application
layer. As we know that TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, so the connection
will remain established until the communication is not completed between the
sender and the receiver.

Features of TCP protocol

The following are the features of a TCP protocol:

o Transport Layer Protocol

TCP is a transport layer protocol as it is used in transmitting the data from the
sender to the receiver.

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o Reliable

TCP is a reliable protocol as it follows the flow and error control mechanism. It
also supports the acknowledgment mechanism, which checks the state and sound
arrival of the data. In the acknowledgment mechanism, the receiver sends either
positive or negative acknowledgment to the sender so that the sender can get to
know whether the data packet has been received or needs to resend.

o Order of the data is maintained

This protocol ensures that the data reaches the intended receiver in the same
order in which it is sent. It orders and numbers each segment so that the TCP
layer on the destination side can reassemble them based on their ordering.

o Connection-oriented

It is a connection-oriented service that means the data exchange occurs only after
the connection establishment. When the data transfer is completed, then the
connection will get terminated.

o Full duplex

It is a full-duplex means that the data can transfer in both directions at the same
time.

o Stream-oriented

TCP is a stream-oriented protocol as it allows the sender to send the data in the
form of a stream of bytes and also allows the receiver to accept the data in the
form of a stream of bytes. TCP creates an environment in which both the sender
and receiver are connected by an imaginary tube known as a virtual circuit. This
virtual circuit carries the stream of bytes across the internet.

Need of Transport Control Protocol

In the layered architecture of a network model, the whole task is divided into
smaller tasks. Each task is assigned to a particular layer that processes the task. In
the TCP/IP model, five layers are application layer, transport layer, network

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layer, data link layer, and physical layer. The transport layer has a critical role in
providing end-to-end communication to the directly application processes. It
creates 65,000 ports so that the multiple applications can be accessed at the
same time. It takes the data from the upper layer, and it divides the data into
smaller packets and then transmits them to the network layer.

Working of TCP

In TCP, the connection is established by using three-way handshaking. The client

sends the segment with its sequence number. The server, in return, sends its
segment with its own sequence number as well as the acknowledgement
sequence, which is one more than the client sequence number. When the client
receives the acknowledgment of its segment, then it sends the acknowledgment
to the server. In this way, the connection is established between the client and
the server.

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Advantages of TCP

o It provides a connection-oriented reliable service, which means that it

guarantees the delivery of data packets. If the data packet is lost across the
network, then the TCP will resend the lost packets.
o It provides a flow control mechanism using a sliding window protocol.
o It provides error detection by using checksum and error control by using Go
Back or ARP protocol.
o It eliminates the congestion by using a network congestion avoidance
algorithm that includes various schemes such as additive
increase/multiplicative decrease (AIMD), slow start, and congestion
window.

Disadvantage of TCP

It increases a large amount of overhead as each segment gets its own TCP header,
so fragmentation by the router increases the overhead.

TCP Header format

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o Source port: It defines the port of the application, which is sending the
data. So, this field contains the source port address, which is 16 bits.
o Destination port: It defines the port of the application on the receiving
side. So, this field contains the destination port address, which is 16 bits.
o Sequence number: This field contains the sequence number of data bytes
in a particular session.
o Acknowledgment number: When the ACK flag is set, then this contains the
next sequence number of the data byte and works as an acknowledgment
for the previous data received. For example, if the receiver receives the
segment number 'x', then it responds 'x+1' as an acknowledgment number.
o HLEN: It specifies the length of the header indicated by the 4-byte words in
the header. The size of the header lies between 20 and 60 bytes. Therefore,
the value of this field would lie between 5 and 15.
o Reserved: It is a 4-bit field reserved for future use, and by default, all are
set to zero.
o Flags
There are six control bits or flags:
1. URG: It represents an urgent pointer. If it is set, then the data is
processed urgently.

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2. ACK: If the ACK is set to 0, then it means that the data packet does
not contain an acknowledgment.
3. PSH: If this field is set, then it requests the receiving device to push
the data to the receiving application without buffering it.
4. RST: If it is set, then it requests to restart a connection.
5. SYN: It is used to establish a connection between the hosts.
6. FIN: It is used to release a connection, and no further data exchange
will happen.

o Window size
It is a 16-bit field. It contains the size of data that the receiver can accept.
This field is used for the flow control between the sender and receiver and
also determines the amount of buffer allocated by the receiver for a
segment. The value of this field is determined by the receiver.
o Checksum
It is a 16-bit field. This field is optional in UDP, but in the case of TCP/IP, this
field is mandatory.
o Urgent pointer
It is a pointer that points to the urgent data byte if the URG flag is set to 1.
It defines a value that will be added to the sequence number to get the
sequence number of the last urgent byte.
o Options
It provides additional options. The optional field is represented in 32-bits. If
this field contains the data less than 32-bit, then padding is required to
obtain the remaining bits.

UDP Protocol

In computer networking, the UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. The David
P. Reed developed the UDP protocol in 1980. It is defined in RFC 768, and it is a
part of the TCP/IP protocol, so it is a standard protocol over the internet. The UDP
protocol allows the computer applications to send the messages in the form of
datagrams from one machine to another machine over the Internet Protocol
(IP) network. The UDP is an alternative communication protocol to the TCP
protocol (transmission control protocol). Like TCP, UDP provides a set of rules that
governs how the data should be exchanged over the internet. The UDP works by
encapsulating the data into the packet and providing its own header information

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to the packet. Then, this UDP packet is encapsulated to the IP packet and sent off
to its destination. Both the TCP and UDP protocols send the data over the internet
protocol network, so it is also known as TCP/IP and UDP/IP. There are many
differences between these two protocols. UDP enables the process to process
communication, whereas the TCP provides host to host communication. Since
UDP sends the messages in the form of datagrams, it is considered the best-effort
mode of communication. TCP sends the individual packets, so it is a reliable
transport medium. Another difference is that the TCP is a connection-oriented
protocol whereas, the UDP is a connectionless protocol as it does not require any
virtual circuit to transfer the data.

UDP also provides a different port number to distinguish different user requests
and also provides the checksum capability to verify whether the complete data
has arrived or not; the IP layer does not provide these two services.

Features of UDP protocol

The following are the features of the UDP protocol:

o Transport layer protocol

UDP is the simplest transport layer communication protocol. It contains a

minimum amount of communication mechanisms. It is considered an unreliable
protocol, and it is based on best-effort delivery services. UDP provides no
acknowledgment mechanism, which means that the receiver does not send the
acknowledgment for the received packet, and the sender also does not wait for
the acknowledgment for the packet that it has sent.

o Connectionless

The UDP is a connectionless protocol as it does not create a virtual path to

transfer the data. It does not use the virtual path, so packets are sent in different
paths between the sender and the receiver, which leads to the loss of packets or
received out of order.

Ordered delivery of data is not guaranteed.

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In the case of UDP, the datagrams are sent in some order will be received in the
same order is not guaranteed as the datagrams are not numbered.

o Ports

The UDP protocol uses different port numbers so that the data can be sent to the
correct destination. The port numbers are defined between 0 and 1023.

o Faster transmission

UDP enables faster transmission as it is a connectionless protocol, i.e., no virtual

path is required to transfer the data. But there is a chance that the individual
packet is lost, which affects the transmission quality. On the other hand, if the
packet is lost in TCP connection, that packet will be resent, so it guarantees the
delivery of the data packets.

o Acknowledgment mechanism

The UDP does have any acknowledgment mechanism, i.e., there is no

handshaking between the UDP sender and UDP receiver. If the message is sent in
TCP, then the receiver acknowledges that I am ready, then the sender sends the
data. In the case of TCP, the handshaking occurs between the sender and the
receiver, whereas in UDP, there is no handshaking between the sender and the
receiver.

o Segments are handled independently.

Each UDP segment is handled individually of others as each segment takes

different path to reach the destination. The UDP segments can be lost or
delivered out of order to reach the destination as there is no connection setup
between the sender and the receiver.

o Stateless

It is a stateless protocol that means that the sender does not get the
acknowledgement for the packet which has been sent.

Why do we require the UDP protocol?

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As we know that the UDP is an unreliable protocol, but we still require a UDP
protocol in some cases. The UDP is deployed where the packets require a large
amount of bandwidth along with the actual data. For example, in video streaming,
acknowledging thousands of packets is troublesome and wastes a lot of
bandwidth. In the case of video streaming, the loss of some packets couldn't
create a problem, and it can also be ignored.

UDP Header Format

In UDP, the header size is 8 bytes, and the packet size is upto 65,535 bytes. But
this packet size is not possible as the data needs to be encapsulated in the IP
datagram, and an IP packet, the header size can be 20 bytes; therefore, the
maximum of UDP would be 65,535 minus 20. The size of the data that the UDP
packet can carry would be 65,535 minus 28 as 8 bytes for the header of the UDP
packet and 20 bytes for IP header.

The UDP header contains four fields:

o Source port number: It is 16-bit information that identifies which port is

going t send the packet.

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o Destination port number: It identifies which port is going to accept the

information. It is 16-bit information which is used to identify application-
level service on the destination machine.
o Length: It is 16-bit field that specifies the entire length of the UDP packet
that includes the header also. The minimum value would be 8-byte as the
size of the header is 8 bytes.
o Checksum: It is a 16-bits field, and it is an optional field. This checksum field
checks whether the information is accurate or not as there is the possibility
that the information can be corrupted while transmission. It is an optional
field, which means that it depends upon the application, whether it wants
to write the checksum or not. If it does not want to write the checksum,
then all the 16 bits are zero; otherwise, it writes the checksum. In UDP, the
checksum field is applied to the entire packet, i.e., header as well as data
part whereas, in IP, the checksum field is applied to only the header field.

Concept of Queuing in UDP protocol

In UDP protocol, numbers are used to distinguish the different processes on a

server and client. We know that UDP provides a process to process
communication. The client generates the processes that need services while the

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server generates the processes that provide services. The queues are available for
both the processes, i.e., two queues for each process. The first queue is the
incoming queue that receives the messages, and the second one is the outgoing
queue that sends the messages. The queue functions when the process is
running. If the process is terminated then the queue will also get destroyed.

UDP handles the sending and receiving of the UDP packets with the help of the
following components:

o Input queue: The UDP packets uses a set of queues for each process.
o Input module: This module takes the user datagram from the IP, and then
it finds the information from the control block table of the same port. If it
finds the entry in the control block table with the same port as the user
datagram, it enqueues the data.
o Control Block Module: It manages the control block table.
o Control Block Table: The control block table contains the entry of open
ports.
o Output module: The output module creates and sends the user datagram.

Several processes want to use the services of UDP. The UDP multiplexes and
demultiplexes the processes so that the multiple processes can run on a single
host.

Limitations

o It provides an unreliable connection delivery service. It does not provide

any services of IP except that it provides process-to-process
communication.
o The UDP message can be lost, delayed, duplicated, or can be out of order.
o It does not provide a reliable transport delivery service. It does not provide
any acknowledgment or flow control mechanism. However, it does provide
error control to some extent.

Advantages

o It produces a minimal number of overheads.

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Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)

 Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a reliable, message-oriented

transport layer protocol.
 SCTP has mixed features of TCP and UDP.
 SCTP maintains the message boundaries and detects the lost data,
duplicate data as well as out-of-order data.
 SCTP provides the Congestion control as well as Flow control.
 SCTP is especially designed for internet applications.

SCTP Services

Some important services provided by SCTP are as stated below:

1. Process-to- Process communication

SCTP uses all important ports of TCP.

2. Multi- Stream Facility

SCTP provides multi-stream service to each connection, called as association. If
one stream gets blocked, then the other stream can deliver the data.

3.Full- Duplex Communication

SCTP provides full-duplex service ( the data can flow in both directions at the
same time).

4. Connection- Oriented Service

The SCTP is a connection oriented protocol, just like TCP with the only difference
that, it is called association in SCTP. If User1 wants to send and receive message
from user2, the steps are :

Step1: The two SCTPs establish the connection with each other.
Step2: Once the connection is established, the data gets exchanged in both the
directions.
Step3: Finally, the association is terminated.

5. Reliability
SCTP uses an acknowledgement mechanism to check the arrival of data.

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Features of SCTP

Some important features of SCTP are as stated below:

1. Transmission Sequence Number (TSN)

The unit of data in SCTP is a data chunk. Data transfer in SCTP is controlled by
numbering the data chunks. In SCTP, TSN is used to assign the numbers
to different data chunks.

2. Stream Identifier (SI)

The SI is a 16 bit number and starts with 0. In SI, there are several streams in each
association and it is needed to identify them. Each data chunk needs to carry the
SI in the header, so that it is properly placed in its stream on arrival.

3. Packets
In SCTP, the data is carried out in the form of data chunks and control
information is carried as control chunks. Data chunks and control chunks are
packed together in the packet.

4. Multihoming
Multihoming allows both ends (sender and receiver) to define multiple IP
addresses for communication. But, only one of these can be defined as primary
address and the remaining can be used as alternative addresses.

Error Control in TCP

TCP protocol has methods for finding out corrupted segments, missing segments,
out-of-order segments and duplicated segments.
Error control in TCP is mainly done through use of three simple techniques :

1. Checksum – Every segment contains a checksum field which is used to find

corrupted segment. If the segment is corrupted, then that segment is
discarded by the destination TCP and is considered as lost.
2. Acknowledgement – TCP has another mechanism called acknowledgement
to affirm that the data segments have been delivered. Control segments
that contain no data but has sequence number will be acknowledged as
well but ACK segments are not acknowledged.

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3. Retransmission – When a segment is missing, delayed to deliver to

receiver, corrupted when it is checked by receiver then that segment is
retransmitted again. Segments are retransmitted only during two events:
when the sender receives three duplicate acknowledgements (ACK) or
when a retransmission timer expires.
1. Retransmission after RTO : TCP always preserve one retransmission
time-out (RTO) timer for all sent but not acknowledged segments.
When the timer runs out of time, the earliest segment is
retransmitted. Here no timer is set for acknowledgement. In TCP,
RTO value is dynamic in nature and it is updated using round trip
time (RTT) of segments. RTT is the time duration needed for a
segment to reach receiver and an acknowledgement to be received
to the sender.
2. Retransmission after Three duplicate ACK segments : RTO method
works well when the value of RTO is small. If it is large, more time is
needed to get confirmation about whether a segment has delivered
or not. Sometimes one segment is lost and the receiver receives so
many out-of-order segments that they cannot be saved. In order to
solve this situation, three duplicate acknowledgement method is
used and missing segment is retransmitted immediately instead of
retransmitting already delivered segment. This is a fast
retransmission because it makes it possible to quickly retransmit lost
segments instead of waiting for timer to end.

TCP Congestion Control

TCP uses a congestion window and a congestion policy that avoid

congestion.Previously, we assumed that only receiver can dictate the sender’s
window size. We ignored another entity here, the network. If the network cannot
deliver the data as fast as it is created by the sender, it must tell the sender to
slow down. In other words, in addition to the receiver, the network is a second
entity that determines the size of the sender’s window.

Congestion policy in TCP –

1. Slow Start Phase: starts slowly increment is exponential to threshold

2. Congestion Avoidance Phase: After reaching the threshold increment is by 1

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3. Congestion Detection Phase: Sender goes back to Slow start phase or

Congestion avoidance phase.

Slow Start Phase : exponential increment – In this phase after every RTT the
congestion window size increments exponentially.

Initially cwnd = 1

After 1 RTT, cwnd = 2^(1) = 2

2 RTT, cwnd = 2^(2) = 4

3 RTT, cwnd = 2^(3) = 8

Congestion Avoidance Phase : additive increment – This phase starts after the
threshold value also denoted as ssthresh. The size of cwnd(congestion window)
increases additive. After each RTT cwnd = cwnd + 1.

Initially cwnd = i
After 1 RTT, cwnd = i+1

2 RTT, cwnd = i+2

3 RTT, cwnd = i+3

Congestion Detection Phase : multiplicative decrement – If congestion occurs,

the congestion window size is decreased. The only way a sender can guess that
congestion has occurred is the need to retransmit a segment. Retransmission is
needed to recover a missing packet which is assumed to have been dropped by a
router due to congestion. Retransmission can occur in one of two cases: when the
RTO timer times out or when three duplicate ACKs are received.
 Case 1 : Retransmission due to Timeout – In this case congestion possibility
is high.
(a) ssthresh is reduced to half of the current window size.
(b) set cwnd = 1
(c) start with slow start phase again.

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 Case 2 : Retransmission due to 3 Acknowledgement Duplicates – In this

case congestion possibility is less.
(a) ssthresh value reduces to half of the current window size.
(b) set cwnd= ssthresh
(c) start with congestion avoidance phase
Example – Assume a TCP protocol experiencing the behavior of slow start. At 5th
transmission round with a threshold (ssthresh) value of 32 goes into congestion
avoidance phase and continues till 10th transmission. At 10th transmission round,
3 duplicate ACKs are received by the receiver and enter into additive increase
mode. Timeout occurs at 16th transmission round. Plot the transmission round
(time) vs congestion window size of TCP segments.

TCP Flow Control

TCP is the protocol that guarantees we can have a reliable communication

channel over an unreliable network. When we send data from a node to another,
packets can be lost, they can arrive out of order, the network can be congested or
the receiver node can be overloaded. When we are writing an application,
though, we usually don’t need to deal with this complexity, we just write some
data to a socket and TCP makes sure the packets are delivered correctly to the
receiver node. Another important service that TCP provides is what is called Flow
Control. Let’s talk about what that means and how TCP does its magic.

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What is Flow Control (and what it’s not)

Flow Control basically means that TCP will ensure that a sender is not
overwhelming a receiver by sending packets faster than it can consume. It’s pretty
similar to what’s normally called Back pressure in the Distributed Systems
literature. The idea is that a node receiving data will send some kind of feedback
to the node sending the data to let it know about its current condition.

It’s important to understand that this is not the same as Congestion Control.
Although there’s some overlap between the mechanisms TCP uses to provide
both services, they are distinct features. Congestion control is about preventing a
node from overwhelming the network (i.e. the links between two nodes), while
Flow Control is about the end-node.

How it works

When we need to send data over a network, this is normally what happens.

The sender application writes data to a socket, the transport layer (in our
case, TCP) will wrap this data in a segment and hand it to the network layer
(e.g. IP), that will somehow route this packet to the receiving node.

On the other side of this communication, the network layer will deliver this piece
of data to TCP, that will make it available to the receiver application as an exact

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copy of the data sent, meaning if will not deliver packets out of order, and will
wait for a retransmission in case it notices a gap in the byte stream.

If we zoom in, we will see something like this.

TCP stores the data it needs to send in the send buffer, and the data it receives in
the receive buffer. When the application is ready, it will then read data from the
receive buffer.

Flow Control is all about making sure we don’t send more packets when the
receive buffer is already full, as the receiver wouldn’t be able to handle them and
would need to drop these packets.

To control the amount of data that TCP can send, the receiver will advertise
its Receive Window (rwnd), that is, the spare room in the receive buffer.

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Every time TCP receives a packet, it needs to send an ack message to the sender,
acknowledging it received that packet correctly, and with this ack message it
sends the value of the current receive window, so the sender knows if it can keep
sending data.

Flow control in SCTP

Flow control in SCTP is similar to that in TCP. In SCTP, we need to handle two units
of data, the byte and the chunk. The values of rwnd and cwnd are expressed in
bytes; the values of TSN and acknowledgments are expressed in chunks. Current
SCTP implementations still use a byte-oriented window for flow control.

Receiver Site:

The receiver has one buffer (queue) and three variables. The queue holds the
received data chunks that have not yet been read by the process. The first
variable holds the last TSN received, cumTSN. The second variable holds the
available buffer size; winsize. The third variable holds the last accumulative
acknowledgment, lastACK. The following figure shows the queue and variables at
the receiver site.

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1. When the site receives a data chunk, it stores it at the end of the buffer (queue)
and subtracts the size of the chunk from winSize. The TSN number of the chunk is
stored in the cumTSN variable.

2. When the process reads a chunk, it removes it from the queue and adds the
size of the removed chunk to winSize (recycling).

3. When the receiver decides to send a SACK, it checks the value of lastAck; if it is
less than cumTSN, it sends a SACK with a cumulative TSN number equal to the
cumTSN. It also includes the value of winSize as the advertised window size.

Sender Site:

The sender has one buffer (queue) and three variables: curTSN, rwnd, and
inTransit, as shown in the following figure. We assume each chunk is 100 bytes
long.

The buffer holds the chunks produced by the process that either have been sent
or are ready to be sent. The first variable, curTSN, refers to the next chunk to be
sent. All chunks in the queue with a TSN less than this value have been sent, but
not acknowledged; they are outstanding. The second variable, rwnd, holds the
last value advertised by the receiver (in bytes). The third variable, inTransit, holds
the number of bytes in transit, bytes sent but not yet acknowledged. The
following is the procedure used by the sender.

1. A chunk pointed to by curTSN can be sent if the size of the data is less than or
equal to the quantity rwnd - inTransit. After sending the chunk, the value of

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curTSN is incremented by 1 and now points to the next chunk to be sent. The
value of inTransit is incremented by the size of the data in the transmitted chunk.

2. When a SACK is received, the chunks with a TSN less than or equal to the
cumulative TSN in the SACK are removed from the queue and discarded. The
sender does not have to worry about them anymore. The value of inTransit is
reduced by the total size of the discarded chunks. The value of rwnd is updated
with the value of the advertised window in the SACK.

Error Control in SCTP

SCTP, like TCP, is a reliable transport layer protocol. It uses a SACK chunk to report
the state of the receiver buffer to the sender. Each implementation uses a
different set of entities and timers for the receiver and sender sites.

Receiver Site:

The receiver stores all chunks that have arrived in its queue including the out-of-
order ones. However, it leaves spaces for any missing chunks. It discards duplicate
messages, but keeps track of them for reports to the sender. The following figure
shows a typical design for the receiver site and the state of the receiving queue at
a particular point in time.

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The last acknowledgment sent was for data chunk 20. The available window size is
1000 bytes. Chunks 21 to 23 have been received in order. The first out-of-order
block contains chunks 26 to 28. The second out-of-order block contains chunks 31
to 34. A variable holds the value of cumTSN. An array of variables keeps track of
the beginning and the end of each block that is out of order. An array of variables
holds the duplicate chunks received. Note that there is no need for storing
duplicate chunks in the queue and they will be discarded.
The figure also shows the SACK chunk that will be sent to report the state of the
receiver to the sender. The TSN numbers for out-of-order chunks are relative
(offsets) to the cumulative TSN.

Sender Site

At the sender site, it needs two buffers (queues): a sending queue and a
retransmission queue. We also use the three variables rwnd, inTransit, and
curTSN as described in the previous section. The following figure shows a typical
design.

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The sending queue holds chunks 23 to 40. The chunks 23 to 36 have already been
sent, but not acknowledged; they are outstanding chunks. The curTSN points to
the next chunk to be sent (37). We assume that each chunk is 100 bytes, which
means that 1400 bytes of data (chunks 23 to 36) is in transit.

The sender at this moment has a retransmission queue. When a packet is sent, a
retransmission timer starts for that packet (all data chunks in that packet). Some
implementations use one single timer for the entire association, but we continue
with our tradition of one timer for each packet for simplification.

When the retransmission timer for a packet expires, or four duplicate SACKs
arrive that declare a packet as missing the chunks in that packet are moved to the
retransmission queue to be resent. These chunks are considered lost, rather than
outstanding. The chunks in the retransmission queue have priority.

SCTP Congestion Control

Congestion control tries avoiding overload situations in network components like

routers.
Congestion in network components can lead to packet loss which is handled by
the error control function of SCTP (see below). The goal of congestion control is to
avoid packet loss in the first place.

SCTP congestion control key facts

•SCTP congestion control is based on RFC2581 with some minor modifications.

•Congestion control is applied to the entire association, not individual streams.

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•SCTP maintains a separate cwnd parameter for each peer destination address in
multihomed scenarios.
•As defined in RFC2581, the transmission rate starts slowly at the beginning (slow
start phase), based on feedback provided by received SACK chunks. After the slow
start phase, SCTP enters the congestion avoidance phase. In case of congestion in
the network, SCTP immediately reverts back to the slow start phase.

SCTP Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance Phases

SCTP congestion control window cwnd

cwnd and rwnd (or a_rwnd = advertised receiver window size) define 2 windows
where the smaller of the 2 determines the maximum amount of data that can be
sent.

After the slow start phase, cwnd is large so that rwnd becomes the dominant
window size.

Congestion Control Window

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Slow start and congestion avoidance phases

The general mechanism applied in SCTP congestion control (as per RFC2581) is to
slowly increase the congestion window size cwnd, but to rapidly collapse the
window when there are signs of congestion.

Packet loss is deemed a sign of congestion. Note, however, that this is not always
true (e.g. on wireless links there may be packet loss due to radio signal
interferences).

Congestion control is applied to the entire association, not individual streams.

Nevertheless, cwnd is maintained per destination transport address (multihomed
scenarios).

Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance Phases

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WWW

The full form of WWW is the World Wide Web. WWW is also called a Web and it
is a catalogue of an order of all websites connected to the worldwide Internet. It
is an information system in which linked hypertext data and resources are
accessed over the Internet. Using a web browser, a user can access a web page
and a user can navigate between the web pages using hyperlinks where images,
texts, and other multimedia data and content can be carried on a website page.

Protocols used by the World Wide Web

WWW uses three protocols, namely

1. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

2. Hypertext markup language (HTML)
3. Uniform resource locator (URLs)

History of WWW

 Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN, an international scientific

organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, began developing the World
Wide Web in 1989. They created the HTTP protocol which standardized
server-client communication. In January 1992, their text-based Web
browser was made available for publication.
 The World Wide Web quickly gained recognition with the development of a
web browser called Mosaic, set up by Marc Andreessen and others at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois
in the United States, and launched in September 1993.
 In April 1994 Andreessen co-founded Netscape Communications
Corporation, soon after its launch, Netscape Navigator became the
powerful Web browser.
 In 1995 the giant software company Microsoft Corporation established its
own Internet Explorer (IE) browser. In 1996 IE was incorporated into the
Windows operating system and IE shortly became a popular Web browser.
 The first real competitor to IE was Mozilla’s Firefox, launched in 2004.
 In 2008 google launched chrome. By 2013, compared to IE and Firefox,
Chrome had become a powerful browser. In 2015, Microsoft discontinued
IE replacing it with Edge.
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Advantages

 Can assist you with studies

 You can do grocery and other shopping online.
 You can contact relatives and friends.

Disadvantages

 Many pages could be misleading, and may steal our data, cash
 Abuse, harassment, racism etc are common nowadays.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a unique identifier used to locate a resource

on the internet. It is also referred to as a web address. URLs consist of multiple
parts -- including a protocol and domain name -- that tell a web browser how and
where to retrieve a resource.

End users use URLs by typing them directly into the address bar of a browser or
by clicking a hyperlink found on a webpage, bookmark list, in an email or from
another application.

How is a URL structured?

The URL contains the name of the protocol needed to access a resource, as well
as a resource name. The first part of a URL identifies what protocol to use as the
primary access medium. The second part identifies the IP address or domain
name -- and possibly subdomain -- where the resource is located.

URL protocols include HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (HTTP
Secure) for web resources, mail to for email addresses, FTP for files on a File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) server, and telnet for a session to access remote
computers. Most URL protocols are followed by a colon and two forward slashes;
“mail to” is followed only by a colon.

Optionally, after the domain, a URL can also specify:

 a path to a specific page or file within a domain;

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 a network port to use to make the connection;

 a specific reference point within a file, such as a named anchor in
an HTML file; and
 a query or search parameters used -- commonly found in URLs for search
results.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) contains the information, which is as follows:

o The port number on the server, which is optional.

o It contains a protocol that is used to access the resource.
o The location of the server
o A fragment identifier
o In the directory structure of the server, it contains the location of the
resource.

The additional information about the URL is described below with the help of an
example:

http:// or https://

The http is a protocol that stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It tells the
browser to which protocol will be preferred to use for accessing the information
that is specified in the domain.

The https (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an enhanced protocol as

compared to http as it concerned with security. It provides the surety that the
information, which is transmitted over HTTP is secure and encrypted. The colon (:)
and two forward slashes (//) are used to separate the protocol from the rest of
the part of the URL.

www.

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o The www is used to distinguish the content, which stands for World Wide
Web. This portion of the URL can be left out many times, as it is not
required..

deh.htm

The jtp.htm is the name of the web page, and the .htm is the file extension of the
web page, which describes the file is an HTML file. There are many other file
extensions available on the internet such as .php, .html, .xml, .jpg, .gif, .asp, .cgi,
etc.

Where is the URL located?

A URL is located in the address bar or search bar at the top of the browser
window. The URL is always visible in the desktop computers and laptop unless our
browser is being displayed in full screen. In most of the smartphones and tablets,
when you scroll down the page, the URL will disappear and only show the domain
when visible. To visible the address bar, you need to scroll up the page. And, if
only the domain is shown and you want to see full address, tapping on the
address bar to show the full address.

What characters cannot be used in the URL?

It is realized by many people that space is not allowed in a URL. The URL string can
contain only symbols ! $-_+*'(), including alphanumeric characters as it is
documented in RFC 1738. Any other characters must be encoded in the URL if
needed.

Is an IP address the same as a web address or a URL?

o An IP address is not the same as a web address or a URL, as it is a unique

number that is assigned to each device on a network. A domain name is
assigned a unique IP address on the World Wide Web, and when entered
an URL like https://www.diwakarhub.com, it is translated by DNS into an IP

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address that used by routers to find web servers. Instead of using an IP

address, a domain name is used as it is easy to remember by humans.

Understanding more complex URLs and parameters

A URL performs additional functions and added the parameters (additional

information) to the end of the URL when it points to a script. For example, when
you search any query on any search engine, it points to a search results page,
including the additional information with the search query words.

Why URL?

o The URL is beneficial, as the written information in the URL provides users
the option to switch from one web page to another by clicking only one
mouse click.
o Every URL is unique and tells users how to access a specific resource.
o When a user types a URL into the web browser and opens any hyperlink
from search results, the browser forwards a request to a webserver to fetch
files related to thesearch query.
o A website domain or URL identifies one particular file, and it is the most
important part of your website. Usually, by using words that end with .net,
.com, or .org, you can get traffic on your website.

DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phonebook of the Internet. Humans access
information online through domain names, like nytimes.com or espn.com. Web
browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates
domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources.

The full form of DNS is the Domain Name System . DNS is linked to the internet
and focused on a system using Internet Protocol ( IP). DNS servers are required
for the working of DNS. The IP address is calculated with the aid of a lookup table.

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Each computer system or website has its own unique IP address. It’s a lengthy
digital code. DNS is an IP service that translates the name of a domain into an
individual IP address. DNS is alphabetic, and thus convenient and straightforward.

Each device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address which other
machines use to find the device. DNS servers eliminate the need for humans to
memorize IP addresses such as 192.168.1.1 (in IPv4), or more complex newer
alphanumeric IP addresses such as 2400:cb00:2048:1::c629:d7a2 (in IPv6).

DNS

An application layer protocol defines how the application processes running on

different systems, pass the messages to each other.

o DNS stands for Domain Name System.

o DNS is a directory service that provides a mapping between the name of a
host on the network and its numerical address.
o DNS is required for the functioning of the internet.
o Each node in a tree has a domain name, and a full domain name is a
sequence of symbols specified by dots.
o DNS is a service that translates the domain name into IP addresses. This
allows the users of networks to utilize user-friendly names when looking for
other hosts instead of remembering the IP addresses.
o For example, suppose the FTP site at EduSoft had an IP address of
132.147.165.50, most people would reach this site by specifying
ftp.EduSoft.com. Therefore, the domain name is more reliable than IP
address.

DNS is a TCP/IP protocol used on different platforms. The domain name space is
divided into three different sections: generic domains, country domains, and
inverse domain.

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Generic Domains

o It defines the registered hosts according to their generic behavior.

o Each node in a tree defines the domain name, which is an index to the DNS
database.
o It uses three-character labels, and these labels describe the organization
type.

Label Description

aero Airlines and aerospace companies

biz Businesses or firms

com Commercial Organizations

coop Cooperative business Organizations

edu Educational institutions

gov Government institutions

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info Information service providers

int International Organizations

mil Military groups

museum Museum & other nonprofit organizations

name Personal names

net Network Support centers

org Nonprofit Organizations

pro Professional individual Organizations

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Country Domain

The format of country domain is same as a generic domain, but it uses two-
character country abbreviations (e.g., us for the United States) in place of three
character organizational abbreviations.

Inverse Domain

The inverse domain is used for mapping an address to a name. When the server
has received a request from the client, and the server contains the files of only
authorized clients. To determine whether the client is on the authorized list or
not, it sends a query to the DNS server and ask for mapping an address to the
name.

Working of DNS

o DNS is a client/server network communication protocol. DNS clients send

requests to the. server while DNS servers send responses to the client.
o Client requests contain a name which is converted into an IP address
known as a forward DNS lookups while requests containing an IP address
which is converted into a name known as reverse DNS lookups.
o DNS implements a distributed database to store the name of all the hosts
available on the internet.
o If a client like a web browser sends a request containing a hostname, then a
piece of software such as DNS resolver sends a request to the DNS server
to obtain the IP address of a hostname. If DNS server does not contain the
IP address associated with a hostname, then it forwards the request to
another DNS server. If IP address has arrived at the resolver, which in turn
completes the request over the internet protocol.

There are 4 DNS servers involved in loading a webpage:

 DNS recursor - The recursor can be thought of as a librarian who is asked to

go find a particular book somewhere in a library. The DNS recursor is a
server designed to receive queries from client machines through
applications such as web browsers. Typically the recursor is then
responsible for making additional requests in order to satisfy the client’s
DNS query.

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 Root nameserver - The root server is the first step in translating (resolving)
human readable host names into IP addresses. It can be thought of like an
index in a library that points to different racks of books - typically it serves
as a reference to other more specific locations.
 TLD nameserver - The top level domain server (TLD) can be thought of as a
specific rack of books in a library. This nameserver is the next step in the
search for a specific IP address, and it hosts the last portion of a hostname
(In example.com, the TLD server is “com”).
 Authoritative nameserver - This final nameserver can be thought of as a
dictionary on a rack of books, in which a specific name can be translated
into its definition. The authoritative nameserver is the last stop in the
nameserver query. If the authoritative name server has access to the
requested record, it will return the IP address for the requested hostname
back to the DNS Recursor (the librarian) that made the initial request.

Working principles of DNS

DNS is essential because, while domain names are easy to remember for people,
computers or devices, sites are accessed based on IP addresses. Working in DNS is
processed, with the help of DNS servers. Into a web browser, when a domain
name entered by the user, the supplication goes to the DNS server. The DNS
server decides the IP address by using a lookup table. Then, it transmits the
supplied information to the user’s web browser through genuine servers.

Information from all website domain servers on the internet is collected and kept
at the Central Registry. Host companies and service providers regularly interact
with the Central Registry to obtain updated DNS data. Your Internet Service
Provider will view the DNS associated with the domain name when you type in a
web address, translate it into a machine-friendly IP address and direct your
Internet connection to the correct website. Usually, it takes around 12-36 hours
for the domain name servers world-wide to be updated and able to obtain the
data after you register a new domain name or when updating the DNS servers on
your domain name. These 36 hours is called propagation.

Important features of DNS

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 The number of features is responsible for the success of DNS, some of them
are
 A DNS consists of a distributed database.
 Additional lists of data are also reserved within the DNS database.
 DNS server offers user interface and excellent features. A considerable
amount of DNS has to be managed through the user interface.

Advantages

 The users receive important messages with zero downtime.

 Through Anycast technology, in an instance of maintenance or downtime,
the supplications are answered by the nearest node.
 DNS immediately rectifies the errors.

Disadvantages

 ICANN can control the DNS root registry that is a private non – profit
organization that connects to a particular country and difficulties the
abstract idea of network neutrality.
 The collapse of DNS would destroy the World Wide Web(WWW), even if
there are more than one root server and backup servers, which will cause
immense harm at different locations, DNS servers have decided.

Name-to-Address Resolution

Though it supports the complex, worldwide hierarchy of computers on the

Internet, the basic function of DNS is actually very simple: providing name-to-
address resolution for TCP/IP-based networks. Name-to-address resolution, also
referred to as mapping, is the process of finding the IP address of a computer in a
database by using its host name as an index.

Name-to-address mapping occurs when a program running on your local machine

needs to contact a remote computer. The program most likely will know the host
name of the remote computer but might not know how to locate it, particularly if
the remote machine is in another company, miles from your site. To get the

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remote machine's address, the program requests assistance from the DNS
software running on your local machine, which is considered a DNS client.

Your machine sends a request to a DNS name server, which maintains the
distributed DNS database. The files in the DNS database bear little resemblance to
the NIS+ host or ipnodes Table or even the
local /etc/hosts or /etc/inet/ipnodes file, though they maintain similar
information: the host names, the ipnode names, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and
other information about a particular group of computers. The name server uses
the host name our machine sent as part of its request to find or “resolve” the IP
address of the remote machine. It then returns this IP address to our local
machine if the host name is in its DNS database.

The following figure shows name-to-address mapping as it occurs between a DNS

client and a name server, probably on the client's local network.

Figure 3–1 Name to Address Resolution

If the host name is not in that name server's DNS database, this indicates that the
machine is outside of its authority, or, to use DNS terminology, outside the local
administrative domain. Thus, each name server is spoken of as being
“authoritative” for its local administrative domain.

Fortunately, the local name server maintains a list of host names and IP addresses
of root domain name servers, to which it will forward the request from our
machine. These root name servers are authoritative for huge organizational
domains, as explained fully in DNS Hierarchy and the Internet. These hierarchies
resemble UNIX file systems, in that they are organized into an upside down tree
structure.

Each root name server maintains the host names and IP addresses of top level
domain name servers for a company, a university, or other large organizations.
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The root name server sends our request to the top-level name servers that it
knows about. If one of these servers has the IP address for the host you
requested, it will return the information to our machine. If the top-level servers
do not know about the host you requested, they pass the request to second-level
name servers for which they maintain information. Our request is then passed on
down through the vast organizational tree. Eventually, a name server that has
information about our requested host in its database will return the IP address
back to our machine.

The following figure shows name-to-address resolution outside the local domain.

Figure 3–2 Name to Address Resolution for a Remote Host

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Electronic Mail Architecture

E-mail is defined as the transmission of messages on the Internet. It is one of the

most commonly used features over communications networks that may contain
text, files, images, or other attachments. Generally, it is information that is stored
on a computer sent through a network to a specified individual or group of
individuals.

Email messages are conveyed through email servers; it uses multiple protocols
within the TCP/IP suite. For example, SMTP is a protocol, stands for simple mail
transfer protocol and used to send messages whereas other protocols IMAP or
POP are used to retrieve messages from a mail server. If we want to login to our
mail account, we just need to enter a valid email address, password, and the mail
servers used to send and receive messages.

Although most of the webmail servers automatically configure your mail account,
therefore, we only required to enter your email address and password. However,
we may need to manually configure each account if we use an email client like
Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail. In addition, to enter the email address and
password, we may also need to enter incoming and outgoing mail servers and the
correct port numbers for each one.

Email messages include three components, which are as follows:

o Message envelope: It depicts the email's electronic format.

o Message header: It contains email subject line and sender/recipient
information.
o Message body: It comprises images, text, and other file attachments.

The email was developed to support rich text with custom formatting, and the
original email standard is only capable of supporting plain text messages. In
modern times, email supports HTML (Hypertext markup language), which makes
it capable of emails to support the same formatting as websites. The email that
supports HTML can contain links, images, CSS layouts, and also can send files or
"email attachments" along with messages. Most of the mail servers enable users
to send several attachments with each message. The attachments were typically
limited to one megabyte in the early days of email. Still, nowadays, many mail
servers are able to support email attachments of 20 megabytes or more in size.
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In 1971, as a test e-mail message, Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail to himself.
This email was contained the text "something like QWERTYUIOP." However, the
e-mail message was still transmitted through ARPANET, despite sending the e-
mail to himself. Most of the electronic mail was being sent as compared to postal
mail till 1996.

Differences between email and webmail

The term email is commonly used to describe both browser-based electronic mail
and non-browser-based electronic mail today. The AOL and Gmail are browser-
based electronic mails, whereas Outlook for Office 365 is non-browser-based
electronic mail. However, to define email, a difference was earlier made as a non-
browser program that needed a dedicated client and email server. The non-
browser emails offered some advantages, which are enhanced security,
integration with corporate software platforms, and lack of advertisements.

Uses of email

Email can be used in different ways: it can be used to communicate either within
an organization or personally, including between two people or a large group of
people. Most people get benefit from communicating by email with colleagues or
friends or individuals or small groups. It allows you to communicate with others
around the world and send and receive images, documents, links, and other
attachments. Additionally, it offers benefit users to communicate with the
flexibility on their own schedule.

There is another benefit of using email; if you use it to communicate between two
people or small groups that will beneficial to remind participants of approaching
due dates and time-sensitive activities and send professional follow-up emails
after appointments. Users can also use the email to quickly remind all upcoming
events or inform the group of a time change. Furthermore, it can be used by
companies or organizations to convey information to large numbers of employees
or customers. Mainly, email is used for newsletters, where mailing list subscribers
are sent email marketing campaigns directly and promoted content from a
company.

Email can also be used to move a latent sale into a completed purchase or turn
leads into paying customers. For example, a company may create an email that is
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used to send emails automatically to online customers who contain products in

their shopping cart. This email can help to remind consumers that they have items
in their cart and stimulate them to purchase those items before the items run out
of stock. Also, emails are used to get reviews by customers after making a
purchase. They can survey by including a question to review the quality of service.

History of E-mail

As compared to ARPANet or the Internet, email is much older. The early email
was just a small advance, which is known as a file directory in nowadays. It was
used to just put a message in other user's directory in the place where they were
able to see the message by logging in. For example, the same as leaving a note on
someone's desk. Possibly MAILBOX was used at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, which was the first email system of this type from 1965. For sending
messages on the same computer, another early program was SNDMSG.

Users were only able to send messages to several users of the same computer
through email when the internetworking was not beginning. And, the problem
became a little more complex when computers began to talk to each other over
networks, we required to put a message in an envelope and address it for the
destination.

Later in 1972, Ray Tomlinson invented email to remove some difficulties.

Tomlinson worked (Like many of the Internet inventors) for Newman and Bolt
Beranek as an ARPANET contractor. To denote sending messages from one
computer to another, he picked up the @ symbol from the keyboard. Then, it
became easy to send a message to another with the help of Internet standards;
they were only required to propose name-of-the-user@name-of-the-computer.
One of the first users of the new system was Internet pioneer Jon Postel. Also,
describing as a "nice hack," credited goes to Jon Postel.

Although the World Wide Web offers many services, email is the most widely
used facility and remains the most important application of the Internet. On the
international level, over 600 million people use email. There were hundreds of
email users by 1974, as ARPANET ultimately encouraged it. Furthermore, email
caused a radical shift in Arpa's purpose, as it became the savior of Arpanet.

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From there were rapid developments in the field of the email system. A big
enhancement was to sort emails; some email folders for his boss were invented
by Larry Roberts. To organize an email, John Vittal developed some software in
1976. By 1976 commercial packages began to appear, and email had really taken
off. The email had changed people and took them from Arpanet to the Internet.
Here was appeared some interesting features that ordinary people all over the
world wanted to use.

Some years later, Ray Tomlinson observed about email. As compared to the
previous one, any single development is stepping rapidly and nearly followed by
the next. I think that all the developments would take a big revolution.

When personal computers came on the scene, the offline reader was one of the
first new developments. Then, email users became able to store their email on
their own personal computers with the help of offline reader and read it. Also,
without actually being connected to the network, they were able to prepare
replies like Microsoft Outlook can do today. In parts of the world, this was
specifically useful for people where the telephone was expensive as compared to
the email system.

Without being connected to a telephone, it was able to prepare a reply with

connection charges of many dollars a minute and then get on the network to send
it. Also, it was useful as the offline mode allowed for more simple user interfaces.
In this modern time of very few standards being connected directly to the host
email system often resulted in no capacity for text to wrap around on the screen
of the user's computer, and backspace keys and delete keys may not work and
other such annoyances. Offline readers helped out more to overcome these kinds
of difficulties.

The SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) was the first important email standard.
It was a fairly naïve protocol that is still in use. And, it was made in terms of no
attempt to find the person who sent a message that was the right or not what
they claimed to be. In the email addresses, fraudulent was very easy and is still
available. Later, these basic flaws were used in the protocol by security frauds,
worms and viruses, and spammers forging identities. From 2004, some of these
problems are still being processed for a solution.

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But as developed email system offered some important features that helped out
people to understand easily about email. In 1988, Steve Dorner developed Eudora
that was one of the first good commercial systems. But it did not appear for a
long time after Pegasus mail come. Servers began to appear as a standard when
Internet standards POP (Post office protocol) for email began to mature. Each
server was a little different before standard post office protocol (POP). POP was
an important standard that allowed users to work together.

Individual dialup users were required to charges for an email per-minute in those
days. Also, on the Internet, email and email discussion groups were the main uses
for most people. There were several issues on a wide variety of subjects; they
became USENET as a body of newsgroups.

With the World Wide Web (WWW), email became available with a simple user
interface that was offered by providers like Hotmail and Yahoo. And, users did not
require to pay any charges on these platforms. Now everyone wanted at least one
email address as it is much simple and affordable, and the medium was adopted
by millions of people.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) started to connect people with each other all
over the world by the 1980s. Also, by 1993 the use of the Internet was becoming
widespread, and the word electronic mail was replaced by email.

Today, email has become a primary platform to communicate with people all over
the world. There are continuing updates to the system with so many people using
email for communication. Although email has some security issues, there have
been laws passed to prevent the spread of junk email over the years.

Advantages of Email

There are many advantages of email, which are as follows:

o Cost-effective: Email is a very cost-effective service to communicate with

others as there are several email services available to individuals and
organizations for free of cost. Once a user is online, it does not include any
additional charge for the services.
o Email offers users the benefit of accessing email from anywhere at any time
if they have an Internet connection.

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o Email offers you an incurable communication process, which enables you to

send a response at a convenient time. Also, it offers users a better option to
communicate easily regardless of different schedules users.
o Speed and simplicity: Email can be composed very easily with the correct
information and contacts. Also, minimum lag time, it can be exchanged
quickly.
o Mass sending: You can send a message easily to large numbers of people
through email.
o Email exchanges can be saved for future retrieval, which allows users to
keep important conversations or confirmations in their records and can be
searched and retrieved when they needed quickly.
o Email provides a simple user interface and enables users to categorize and
filter their messages. This can help you recognize unwanted emails like junk
and spam mail. Also, users can find specific messages easily when they are
needed.
o As compared to traditional posts, emails are delivered extremely fast.
o Email is beneficial for the planet, as it is paperless. It reduces the cost of
paper and helps to save the environment by reducing paper usage.
o It also offers a benefit to attaching the original message at the time you
reply to an email. This is beneficial when you get hundreds of emails a day,
and the recipient knows what you are talking about.
o Furthermore, emails are beneficial for advertising products. As email is a
form of communication, organizations or companies can interact with a lot
of people and inform them in a short time.

Disadvantages of Email

o Impersonal: As compared to other forms of communication, emails are less

personal. For example, when you talk to anyone over the phone or meeting
face to face is more appropriate for communicating than email.
o Misunderstandings: As email includes only text, and there is no tone of
voice or body language to provide context. Therefore, misunderstandings
can occur easily with email. If someone sends a joke on email, it can be
taken seriously. Also, well-meaning information can be quickly typed as
rude or aggressive that can impact wrong. Additionally, if someone types
with short abbreviations and descriptions to send content on the email, it
can easily be misinterpreted.

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o Malicious Use: As email can be sent by anyone if they have an only email
address. Sometimes, an unauthorized person can send you mail, which can
be harmful in terms of stealing your personal information. Thus, they can
also use email to spread gossip or false information.
o Accidents Will Happen: With email, you can make fatal mistakes by clicking
the wrong button in a hurry. For instance, instead of sending it to a single
person, you can accidentally send sensitive information to a large group of
people. Thus, the information can be disclosed, when you have clicked the
wrong name in an address list. Therefore, it can be harmful and generate
big trouble in the workplace.
o Spam: Although in recent days, the features of email have been improved,
there are still big issues with unsolicited advertising arriving and spam
through email. It can easily become overwhelming and takes time and
energy to control.
o Information Overload: As it is very easy to send email to many people at a
time, which can create information overload. In many modern workplaces,
it is a major problem where it is required to move a lot of information and
impossible to tell if an email is important. And, email needs organization
and upkeep. The bad feeling is one of the other problems with email when
you returned from vacation and found hundreds of unopened emails in
your inbox.
o Viruses: Although there are many ways to travel viruses in the devices,
email is one of the common ways to enter viruses and infect devices.
Sometimes when you get a mail, it might be the virus come with an
attached document. And, the virus can infect the system when you click on
the email and open the attached link. Furthermore, an anonymous person
or a trusted friend or contact can send infected emails.
o Pressure to Respond: If you get emails and you do not answer them, the
sender can get annoyed and think you are ignoring them. Thus, this can be
a reason to make pressure on your put to keep opening emails and then
respond in some way.
o Time Consuming: When you get an email and read, write, and respond to
emails that can take up vast amounts of time and energy. Many modern
workers spend their most time with emails, which may be caused to take
more time to complete work.

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o Overlong Messages: Generally, email is a source of communication with

the intention of brief messages. There are some people who write overlong
messages that can take much time than required.
o Insecure: There are many hackers available that want to gain your
important information, so email is a common source to seek sensitive data,
such as political, financial, documents, or personal messages. In recent
times, there have various high-profile cases occurred that shown how email
is insecure about information theft.

Different types of Email

There are many types of email; such are as follows:

Newsletters: It is studying by Clutch, the newsletter is the most common type of

email that are routinely sent to all mailing list subscribers, either daily, weekly, or
monthly. These emails often contain from the blog or website, links curated from
other sources, and selected content that the company has recently published.
Typically, Newsletter emails are sent on a consistent schedule, and they offer
businesses the option to convey important information to their client through a
single source. Newsletters might also incorporate upcoming events or new,
webinars from the company, or other updates.

Lead Nurturing: Lead-nurturing emails are a series of related emails that

marketers use to take users on a journey that may impact their buying behavior.
These emails are typically sent over a period of several days or weeks. Lead-
nurturing emails are also known as trigger campaigns, which are used for
solutions in an attempt to move any prospective sale into a completed purchase
and educate potential buyers on the services. These emails are not only helpful
for converting emails but also drive engagement. Furthermore, lead-nurturing
emails are initiated by a potential buyer taking initial action, such as clicking links
on a promotional email or downloading a free sample.

Promotional emails: It is the most common type of B2B (Business to Business)

email, which is used to inform the email list of your new or existing products or
services. These types of emails contain creating new or repeat customers,
speeding up the buying process, or encouraging contacts to take some type of
action. It provides some critical benefits to buyers, such as a free month of

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service, reduced or omitted fees for managed services, or percentage off the
purchase price.

Standalone Emails: These emails are popular like newsletters emails, but they
contain a limitation. If you want to send an email with multiple links or blurbs,
your main call-to-action can weaken. Your subscriber may skip your email and
move on, as they may click on the first link or two in your email but may not come
back to the others.

Onboarding emails: An onboarding email is a message that is used to strengthen

customer loyalty, also known as post-sale emails. These emails receive users right
after subscription. The onboarding emails are sent to buyers to familiarize and
educate them about how to use a product effectively. Additionally, when clients
faced with large-scale service deployments, these emails help them facilitate user
adoption.

Transactional: These emails are related to account activity or a commercial

transaction and sent from one sender to one recipient. Some examples of
transactional email are purchase confirmations, password reminder emails, and
personalized product notifications. These emails are used when you have any kind
of e-commerce component to your business. As compared to any other type of
email, the transactional email messages have 8x the opens and clicks.

Plain-Text Emails: It is a simple email that does not include images or graphics
and no formatting; it only contains the text. These types of emails may worth it if
you try to only ever send fancy formatted emails, text-only messages. According
to HubSpot, although people prefer fully designed emails with various images,
plain text emails with less HTML won out in every A/B test. In fact, HTML emails
contain lower open and click-through rates, and plain text emails can be great for
blog content, event invitations, and survey or feedback requests. Even if you do
not send plainer emails, but you can boost your open and click through rates by
simplifying your emails and including fewer images.

Welcome emails: It is a type of B2B email and common parts of onboarding

emails that help users get acquainted with the brand. These emails can improve
subscriber constancy as they include additional information, which helps to the
new subscriber in terms of a business objective. Generally, welcome emails are

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sent buyers who got a subscription to a business's opt-in activities, such as a blog,
mailing list, or webinar. Also, these emails can help businesses to build a better
relationship between customers.

Examples of email attacks

Although there are many ways to travel viruses in the devices, email is one of the
most common vectors for cyberattacks. The methods include spoofing,
spamming, spear-phishing, phishing, ransomware, and business email
compromise (BEC).

There are many organizations (around 7710) hit by a BEC attack every month, as
one out of every 412 emails contains a malware attack. According to the
Symantec Internet Threat Security Report, spear-phishing is the most widely used
infection vector. Below is given a complete description of these types of attacks:

o Phishing: A form of fraud in which the attacks are the practice of sending
fraudulent communications that appear to come from a reputable entity or
person in email or other communication channels. Usually, it is done
through the email; phishing emails are used by attackers to steal sensitive
data like credit card and login information or to install malware on the
victim's machine. Additionally, everyone should learn about a phishing
attack in order to protect themselves, as it is a common type of
cyberattack. The common features of phishing emails are Sense of urgency,
Hyperlinks, Too Good to Be True, Unusual sender, Attachments.
o Spamming: Spam email is unsolicited bulk messages sent without explicit
consent from the recipient, which is also known as junk email. Since the
1990s, spam is a problem faced by most email users and has been
increasing in popularity. Obtained by spambots, spam mail recipients have
had their email addresses (automated programs), which crawl the Internet
to find email addresses. This is the dark side of email marketing in which
spammers use spambots to create email distribution lists. Typically, an
email is sent by a spammer to millions of email addresses with the
expectation that only a few numbers of an email address will respond or
interact with the message.
o Spoofing: Email spoofing is an email message that could be obtained from
someone or somewhere other than the intended source. It is a popular

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strategy that is used in spam and phishing campaigns as core email

protocols do not have a built-in method of authentication. And, when
people think the email has been sent by a legitimate or familiar source,
they are more likely to open an email. Thus, it is a common tactic used for
spam and phishing emails. The email spoofing is used with the purpose of
getting mail recipients to open emails and possibly respond to a solicitation.
o Business email compromise (BEC): A BEC is an exploit in which an
authorized person or attacker hacks to a business email account and spoofs
the owner's identity to defraud the company, its customers, partners of
money. Often, an attacker simply creates an account with an email address
that is almost identical to one on the corporate network, which creates
trust between the victim and their email account. Sometimes, a BEC is also
known as a man-in-the-email attack. Some samples of BEC email messages
that contain the word in subject, such as urgent, transfer, request,
payment, and more. There are five types of BEC scams on the basis of the
FBI, which are False Invoice Scheme, CEO Fraud, Data Theft, Attorney
Impersonation, Account Compromise.
o Spear-phishing: Email spoofing is an attack where hackers target an
individual or specific organization to gain sensitive information through
unauthorized access. Spear phishing is not initiated by random hackers but
attempted by perpetrators to gain financial benefits or secrets information.
It is an attack in which attackers send emails to specific and well-researched
targets while purporting to be a trusted sender. The main objective of spear
phishing is to convince victims to hand over information or money and
infect devices with malware.
o Ransomware: It is a subset of malware that is used to encrypt a victim's
files. Typically, it locks data by encryption on the victim's system. Typically,
it locks data by encryption on the victim's system, and attackers demand
payments before the ransomed data is decrypted. Unlike other types of
attacks, the primary goal of ransomware attacks is just about always
monetary. Usually, when the exploit occurs, a victim is notified about the
attack and is given instructions for how to recover from the attack.

Popular email sites

There are some free email website examples include the following:

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o AOL
o Zoho
o Gmail
o ProtonMail
o Com
o Microsoft Outlook
o Yahoo Mail

Email is a platform that allows users to communicate with people or groups of

people around the world. As email security is more important but consequent, it
is not inherently secure.

There are many techniques that can be used by individuals, organizations, and
service providers. These techniques provide how to protect sensitive information
with email communication and accounts from unauthorized access, loss, or
destruction.

Individuals can protect their account with the help of creating strong passwords
and changing them frequently. They can use alphabetical, numerical, special
symbols to make a strong password that helps to protect your account. Users can
also install and run an antivirus and antimalware software on their computer, as
well as create spam filters and folders to separate potentially malicious emails
and junk mail.

Also, there are some techniques the helps organizations to secure email include
implementing an email security gateway, training employees on deploying
automated email encryption solutions, and proper email usage. By processing and
scanning all received emails, email gateways check emails for threats, and analyze
that should be allowed into the system or not. A multilayered gateway is a
powerful technique since attacks are increasing rapidly and becoming
complicated and sophisticated. Some emails that cannot be caught by the
gateway, training employees on how to differentiate malicious messages, and
properly use email are the best approach, which helps users avoid threatening
mails.

For potentially sensitive information, the automated email encryption solutions

are used that scans all outgoing messages; it will encrypt the sensitive information

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before it is sent to the intended recipient. This process helps to send email
securely and prevent hackers from gaining access to the secret information, even
if they stop it. The only intended recipient can view the original information with
permission.

Email service providers can also help to enhance security with the help of
accessing control standards and mechanisms and establishing a strong password.
Additionally, providers should also offer digital signatures and encryption
solutions to secure emails in transit and in users' inboxes. Finally, to protect users
from malicious, unrecognized, and untrustworthy messages, service providers
should implement firewalls and spam-filtering software applications.

What can be sent in an e-mail?

An email is a platform that enables users to communicate with each other. It

allows users to send text messages, including a file or other data on the e-mail all
over the world. It is also possible to attach a picture, word processor document,
PDF, program, movie, or any file stored on your computer in an e-mail. However,
due to some security issues, it may not be possible to send certain types of files
on the email; they need some additional steps. For example, the .exe file can be
blocked by many companies from being sent over the email, and you will need to
compress the file into a .zip file format. Additionally, you may be unable to send
any large files or programs from being sent over e-mail as most e-mail providers
have file size restrictions.

What should be write e-mail or email?

You can use any word email or e-mail according to the style guide you are
following as both are valid and have the same meaning. However, the e-mail
word has a hyphen and is a compound noun that describes "electronic" and
"mail."

How to send and receive e-mail

E-mail program

You can use an email program to send and receive an email. An email program is
also known as an e-mail client. There are many email programs available to send

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and receive an email, including Mozilla Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook. A

server is used to store and deliver your messages while you use an email client.
Often, your ISP (Internet service provider) host this server but can be another
Internet company to host this server. To download the new emails, an email client
requires connecting a server, whereas online stored emails are always available
on Internet-connected devices.

Online e-mail

An online e-mail service or webmail is an alternative way and the popular solution
for most people in sending and receiving e-mail. Examples of online emails are
Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail (now Outlook.com).

Some of the popular e-mail clients?

Today, there are different software-based e-mail clients available for users, but
these are not online. Below is given a list that contains the most popular clients.

o Microsoft Outlookv
o Mail for Windows 10
o DreamMail
o Mozilla Thunderbird
o eM Client
o Mailbird

What makes a valid e-mail address?

Users need to follow the various rule that is given below to make valid email
address:

o A username followed by @ (the at sign) is most important for an email

address, which is followed by the domain name with a domain suffix.
Hence, an e-mail must have a username.
o The domain name cannot be longer than 254 characters, and the username
cannot be longer than 64 characters long.
o An email must have only one @ sign.
o An email should not have space and special characters like \ [ ] ( ) , : ; < >.
Sometimes, few symbols such as backslash, space, and quotation mark

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work must be preceded with a forward slash. But these characters are not
allowed by some email providers.
o In the email, the email address and username cannot start or end with a
period.
o The two or more successive periods are not allowed in the email.

SMTP

Email is emerging as one of the most valuable services on the internet today.
Most of the internet systems use SMTP as a method to transfer mail from one
user to another. SMTP is a push protocol and is used to send the mail whereas
POP (post office protocol) or IMAP (internet message access protocol) are used to
retrieve those mails at the receiver’s side.

SMTP Fundamentals
SMTP is an application layer protocol. The client who wants to send the mail
opens a TCP connection to the SMTP server and then sends the mail across the
connection. The SMTP server is always on listening mode. As soon as it listens for
a TCP connection from any client, the SMTP process initiates a connection on that
port (25). After successfully establishing the TCP connection the client process
sends the mail instantly.

SMTP Protocol

The SMTP model is of two type :

1. End-to- end method

2. Store-and- forward method

The end to end model is used to communicate between different organizations

whereas the store and forward method are used within an organization. A SMTP
client who wants to send the mail will contact the destination’s host SMTP
directly in order to send the mail to the destination. The SMTP server will keep
the mail to itself until it is successfully copied to the receiver’s SMTP.
The client SMTP is the one which initiates the session let us call it as the client-
SMTP and the server SMTP is the one which responds to the session request and
let us call it as receiver-SMTP. The client- SMTP will start the session and the
receiver-SMTP will respond to the request.

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Model of SMTP system

In the SMTP model user deals with the user agent (UA) for example Microsoft
Outlook, Netscape, Mozilla, etc. In order to exchange the mail using TCP, MTA is
used. The users sending the mail do not have to deal with the MTA it is the
responsibility of the system admin to set up the local MTA. The MTA maintains a
small queue of mails so that it can schedule repeat delivery of mail in case the
receiver is not available. The MTA delivers the mail to the mailboxes and the
information can later be downloaded by the user agents.

Both the SMTP-client and MSTP-server should have 2 components:

1. User agent (UA)

2. Local MTA

Communication between sender and the receiver :

The senders, user agent prepare the message and send it to the MTA. The MTA
functioning is to transfer the mail across the network to the receivers MTA. To
send mail, a system must have the client MTA, and to receive mail, a system must
have a server MTA.

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SENDING EMAIL:
Mail is sent by a series of request and response messages between the client and
a server. The message which is sent across consists of a header and the body. A
null line is used to terminate the mail header. Everything which is after the null
line is considered as the body of the message which is a sequence of ASCII
characters. The message body contains the actual information read by the
receipt.

RECEIVING EMAIL:
The user agent at the server side checks the mailboxes at a particular time of
intervals. If any information is received it informs the user about the mail. When
the user tries to read the mail it displays a list of mails with a short description of
each mail in the mailbox. By selecting any of the mail user can view its contents
on the terminal.

Some SMTP Commands:

 HELO – Identifies the client to the server, fully qualified domain name, only
sent once per session
 MAIL – Initiate a message transfer, fully qualified domain of originator
 RCPT – Follows MAIL, identifies an addressee, typically the fully qualified
name of the addressee and for multiple addressees use one RCPT for each
addressee
 DATA – send data line by line

POP

POP stands for Point of Presence (also known as Post Office Protocol).

It is a point where many devices share a connection and can communicate with
each other. We can say that it is a man-made demarcation point (a point where
the public network of a company ends and the private network of the customer
begins for eg. the point at which your broadband cable enters the house)
between communicating entities. It basically consists of high-speed
telecommunications equipment and technologies helps in bringing together
people from all over the internet.

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An example of this would be the local access point that connects customers via
their internet service provider (ISP) to the rest of the world. The size of an ISP can
be calculated by seeing the number of POPs that the service provider has. The
normal houses routers, modems, servers, switches, and other such devices that
have to share data over networks all use POPs. Internet Service Providers have
multiple POPs.

Characteristics of POP :


Post Office Protocol is an open protocol, defined by Internet RFCs.
 It allows access to new mail from a spread of client platform types.
 It supports download and delete functions even when offline.
 It requires no mail gateways due to its native nature.
 POP can handle email access only while the emails are sent by SMTP.

RFC 918 got published in 1984 which defined the Post Office Protocol (POP). The
explanation of why POP came in the picture was to supply a neater way for a
client computer to retrieve e-mail on an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
server so that it can be used locally. POP Version 2 got published in 1985.

It improvised the capabilities of POP by defining a far impressive set of commands

further as replies. RFC 1939 was published in 1996 and POP3 has not been
improvised since that point.

Examples:

 Carrier hotels :
These buildings are extremely secure with size averaging around 54, 000
square feet. These hotels offer hardware and software installation,
updation and several other services.
 Meet-me rooms :
Meet-Me Rooms (MMRs) are small space inside carrier hotels, averaging
around 5, 000 square feet. These small rooms house interconnects
networking equipment owned by many telecommunication companies.

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Figure – Post Office Protocol (POP)

Working:
POP’s working is based on its five important equipment which are:

1. Base stations – A central point of reference to an access point and

bandwidth management to ensure evenly distribution of the connection
speed of the customer.
2. Client equipment – utilized by customers to link with the base stations
3. Network switches – Used for proper distribution
4. Routers – Provides multiple paths for the data to be shared in the network
5. Firewall – Used for securing the network from threats (internal and
external)

Advantages:
The latest version of Post Office Protocol (POP3) is that the most widely used
protocol and is being supported by most of the email clients.

It provides a convenient and standard way for users to access mailboxes and
download messages. An important advantage of this is that the mail messages get
delivered to the client PC and they can be read with or without accessing the web.

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More advantages are:

 Creation of latest messages impossible without being logged onto the web
 All messages get stored on the disc drive of your computer
 As the attachments are already on your PC, opening them may be a quicker
process
 There isn’t any maximum size on your mailbox, except as determined by
the scale of your disc drive

Disadvantages:

 Consumes large memory as all the messages are stored on the disc drive
 Opening attachments may be a fast process unless the attachment contains
a virus
 Since all attachments get downloaded on your computer, there’s a danger
of virus attack if they’re not
scanned by antivirus softwares as these scans are only 60% effective
 Email folders can become corrupted and might even drift.

IMAP Protocol

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is an application layer

protocol which is used to receive the emails from the mail server. It is the most
commonly used protocols like POP3 for retrieving the emails.

It also follows the client/server model. On one side, we have an IMAP client,
which is a process running on a computer. On the other side, we have an IMAP
server, which is also a process running on another computer. Both computers are
connected through a network.

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The IMAP protocol resides on the TCP/IP transport layer which means that it
implicitly uses the reliability of the protocol. Once the TCP connection is
established between the IMAP client and IMAP server, the IMAP server listens to
the port 143 by default, but this port number can also be changed.

By default, there are two ports used by IMAP:

o Port 143: It is a non-encrypted IMAP port.

o Port 993: This port is used when IMAP client wants to connect through
IMAP securely.

Why should we use IMAP instead of POP3 protocol?

POP3 is becoming the most popular protocol for accessing the TCP/IP mailboxes.
It implements the offline mail access model, which means that the mails are
retrieved from the mail server on the local machine, and then deleted from the
mail server. Nowadays, millions of users use the POP3 protocol to access the
incoming mails. Due to the offline mail access model, it cannot be used as much.
The online model we would prefer in the ideal world. In the online model, we
need to be connected to the internet always. The biggest problem with the offline
access using POP3 is that the mails are permanently removed from the server, so
multiple computers cannot access the mails. The solution to this problem is to
store the mails at the remote server rather than on the local server. The POP3
also faces another issue, i.e., data security and safety. The solution to this
problem is to use the disconnected access model, which provides the benefits of
both online and offline access. In the disconnected access model, the user can
retrieve the mail for local use as in the POP3 protocol, and the user does not need
to be connected to the internet continuously. However, the changes made to the
mailboxes are synchronized between the client and the server. The mail remains
on the server so different applications in the future can access it. When
developers recognized these benefits, they made some attempts to implement
the disconnected access model. This is implemented by using the POP3
commands that provide the option to leave the mails on the server. This works,
but only to a limited extent, for example, keeping track of which messages are
new or old become an issue when both are retrieved and left on the server. So,
the POP3 lacks some features which are required for the proper disconnected
access model.

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In the mid-1980s, the development began at Stanford University on a new

protocol that would provide a more capable way of accessing the user mailboxes.
The result was the development of the interactive mail access protocol, which
was later renamed as Internet Message Access Protocol.

IMAP History and Standards

The first version of IMAP was formally documented as an internet standard was
IMAP version 2, and in RFC 1064, and was published in July 1988. It was updated
in RFC 1176, August 1990, retaining the same version. So they created a new
document of version 3 known as IMAP3. In RFC 1203, which was published in
February 1991. However, IMAP3 was never accepted by the market place, so
people kept using IMAP2. The extension to the protocol was later created called
IMAPbis, which added support for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
to IMAP. This was a very important development due to the usefulness of MIME.
Despite this, IMAPbis was never published as an RFC. This may be due to the
problems associated with the IMAP3. In December 1994, IMAP version 4, i.e.,
IMAP4 was published in two RFCs, i.e., RFC 1730 describing the main protocol and
RFC 1731 describing the authentication mechanism for IMAP 4. IMAP 4 is the
current version of IMAP, which is widely used today. It continues to be refined,
and its latest version is actually known as IMAP4rev1 and is defined in RFC 2060.
It is most recently updated in RFC 3501.

IMAP Features

IMAP was designed for a specific purpose that provides a more flexible way of
how the user accesses the mailbox. It can operate in any of the three modes, i.e.,
online, offline, and disconnected mode. Out of these, offline and disconnected
modes are of interest to most users of the protocol.

The following are the features of an IMAP protocol:

o Access and retrieve mail from remote server: The user can access the mail
from the remote server while retaining the mails in the remote server.
o Set message flags: The message flag is set so that the user can keep track of
which message he has already seen.

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o Manage multiple mailboxes: The user can manage multiple mailboxes and
transfer messages from one mailbox to another. The user can organize
them into various categories for those who are working on various projects.
o Determine information prior to downloading: It decides whether to retrieve
or not before downloading the mail from the mail server.
o Downloads a portion of a message: It allows you to download the portion
of a message, such as one body part from the mime-multi part. This can be
useful when there are large multimedia files in a short-text element of a
message.
o Organize mails on the server: In case of POP3, the user is not allowed to
manage the mails on the server. On the other hand, the users can organize
the mails on the server according to their requirements like they can
create, delete or rename the mailbox on the server.
o Search: Users can search for the contents of the emails.
o Check email-header: Users can also check the email-header prior to
downloading.
o Create hierarchy: Users can also create the folders to organize the mails in
a hierarchy.

IMAP General Operation

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1. The IMAP is a client-server protocol like POP3 and most other TCP/IP
application protocols. The IMAP4 protocol functions only when the IMAP4
must reside on the server where the user mailboxes are located. In c the
POP3 does not necessarily require the same physical server that provides
the SMTP services. Therefore, in the case of the IMAP protocol, the mailbox
must be accessible to both SMTP for incoming mails and IMAP for retrieval
and modifications.
2. The IMAP uses the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for communication
to ensure the delivery of data and also received in the order.
3. The IMAP4 listens on a well-known port, i.e., port number 143, for an
incoming connection request from the IMAP4 client.

The IMAP protocol through a simple example.

The IMAP protocol synchronizes all the devices with the main server. Let's
suppose we have three devices desktop, mobile, and laptop as shown in the
above figure. If all these devices are accessing the same mailbox, then it will be
synchronized with all the devices. Here, synchronization means that when mail is
opened by one device, then it will be marked as opened in all the other devices, if
we delete the mail, then the mail will also be deleted from all the other devices.
So, we have synchronization between all the devices. In IMAP, we can see all the
folders like spam, inbox, sent, etc. We can also create our own folder known as a
custom folder that will be visible in all the other devices.

FTP

o FTP stands for File transfer protocol.

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o FTP is a standard internet protocol provided by TCP/IP used for transmitting

the files from one host to another.
o It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator to the
computer that acts as a server for other computers on the internet.
o It is also used for downloading the files to computer from other servers.

Objectives of FTP

o It provides the sharing of files.

o It is used to encourage the use of remote computers.
o It transfers the data more reliably and efficiently.

Why FTP?

Although transferring files from one system to another is very simple and
straightforward, but sometimes it can cause problems. For example, two systems
may have different file conventions. Two systems may have different ways to
represent text and data. Two systems may have different directory structures. FTP
protocol overcomes these problems by establishing two connections between
hosts. One connection is used for data transfer, and another connection is used
for the control connection.

Mechanism of FTP

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The above figure shows the basic model of the FTP. The FTP client has three
components: the user interface, control process, and data transfer process. The
server has two components: the server control process and the server data
transfer process.

There are two types of connections in FTP:

o Control Connection: The control connection uses very simple rules for
communication. Through control connection, we can transfer a line of
command or line of response at a time. The control connection is made
between the control processes. The control connection remains connected
during the entire interactive FTP session.
o Data Connection: The Data Connection uses very complex rules as data
types may vary. The data connection is made between data transfer
processes. The data connection opens when a command comes for
transferring the files and closes when the file is transferred.

FTP Clients

o FTP client is a program that implements a file transfer protocol which

allows you to transfer files between two hosts on the internet.
o It allows a user to connect to a remote host and upload or download the
files.
o It has a set of commands that we can use to connect to a host, transfer the
files between you and your host and close the connection.
o The FTP program is also available as a built-in component in a Web
browser. This GUI based FTP client makes the file transfer very easy and
also does not require to remember the FTP commands.
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Advantages of FTP:

o Speed: One of the biggest advantages of FTP is speed. The FTP is one of the
fastest way to transfer the files from one computer to another computer.
o Efficient: It is more efficient as we do not need to complete all the
operations to get the entire file.
o Security: To access the FTP server, we need to login with the username and
password. Therefore, we can say that FTP is more secure.
o Back & forth movement: FTP allows us to transfer the files back and forth.
Suppose you are a manager of the company, you send some information to
all the employees, and they all send information back on the same server.

Disadvantages of FTP:

o The standard requirement of the industry is that all the FTP transmissions
should be encrypted. However, not all the FTP providers are equal and not
all the providers offer encryption. So, we will have to look out for the FTP
providers that provides encryption.
o FTP serves two operations, i.e., to send and receive large files on a network.
However, the size limit of the file is 2GB that can be sent. It also doesn't
allow you to run simultaneous transfers to multiple receivers.
o Passwords and file contents are sent in clear text that allows unwanted
eavesdropping. So, it is quite possible that attackers can carry out the brute
force attack by trying to guess the FTP password.
o It is not compatible with every system.

Telnet

o The main task of the internet is to provide services to users. For example,
users want to run different application programs at the remote site and
transfers a result to the local site. This requires a client-server program
such as FTP, SMTP. But this would not allow us to create a specific program
for each demand.
o The better solution is to provide a general client-server program that lets
the user access any application program on a remote computer. Therefore,
a program that allows a user to log on to a remote computer. A popular

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client-server program Telnet is used to meet such demands. Telnet is an

abbreviation for Terminal Network.
o Telnet provides a connection to the remote computer in such a way that a
local terminal appears to be at the remote side.

There are two types of login:

Local Login

o When a user logs into a local computer, then it is known as local

login.
o When the workstation running terminal emulator, the keystrokes
entered by the user are accepted by the terminal driver. The terminal
driver then passes these characters to the operating system which in
turn, invokes the desired application program.
o However, the operating system has special meaning to special
characters. For example, in UNIX some combination of characters
have special meanings such as control character with "z" means
suspend. Such situations do not create any problem as the terminal
driver knows the meaning of such characters. But, it can cause the
problems in remote login.

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Remote login

o When the user wants to access an application program on a remote

computer, then the user must perform remote login.

How remote login occurs

At the local site

The user sends the keystrokes to the terminal driver, the characters are then sent
to the TELNET client. The TELNET client which in turn, transforms the characters
to a universal character set known as network virtual terminal characters and
delivers them to the local TCP/IP stack

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At the remote site

The commands in NVT forms are transmitted to the TCP/IP at the remote
machine. Here, the characters are delivered to the operating system and then
pass to the TELNET server. The TELNET server transforms the characters which
can be understandable by a remote computer. However, the characters cannot be
directly passed to the operating system as a remote operating system does not
receive the characters from the TELNET server. Therefore it requires some piece
of software that can accept the characters from the TELNET server. The operating
system then passes these characters to the appropriate application program.

Network Virtual Terminal (NVT)

o The network virtual terminal is an interface that defines how data

and commands are sent across the network.
o In today's world, systems are heterogeneous. For example, the
operating system accepts a special combination of characters such as

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end-of-file token running a DOS operating system ctrl+z while the

token running a UNIX operating system is ctrl+d.
o TELNET solves this issue by defining a universal interface known as
network virtual interface.
o The TELNET client translates the characters that come from the local
terminal into NVT form and then delivers them to the network. The
Telnet server then translates the data from NVT form into a form
which can be understandable by a remote computer.

Computer Network Security

Computer network security consists of measures taken by business or some

organizations to monitor and prevent unauthorized access from the outside
attackers.

Different approaches to computer network security management have different

requirements depending on the size of the computer network. For example, a
home office requires basic network security while large businesses require high
maintenance to prevent the network from malicious attacks.

Network Administrator controls access to the data and software on the network.
A network administrator assigns the user ID and password to the authorized
person.

Aspects of Network Security:

Following are the desirable properties to achieve secure communication:

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o Privacy: Privacy means both the sender and the receiver expects
confidentiality. The transmitted message should be sent only to the
intended receiver while the message should be opaque for other users.
Only the sender and receiver should be able to understand the transmitted
message as eavesdroppers can intercept the message. Therefore, there is a
requirement to encrypt the message so that the message cannot be
intercepted. This aspect of confidentiality is commonly used to achieve
secure communication.
o Message Integrity: Data integrity means that the data must arrive at the
receiver exactly as it was sent. There must be no changes in the data
content during transmission, either maliciously or accident, in a transit. As
there are more and more monetary exchanges over the internet, data
integrity is more crucial. The data integrity must be preserved for secure
communication.
o End-point authentication: Authentication means that the receiver is sure of
the sender?s identity, i.e., no imposter has sent the message.
o Non-Repudiation: Non-Repudiation means that the receiver must be able
to prove that the received message has come from a specific sender. The
sender must not deny sending a message that he or she send. The burden
of proving the identity comes on the receiver. For example, if a customer
sends a request to transfer the money from one account to another
account, then the bank must have a proof that the customer has requested
for the transaction.

Malware

Malware is a program designed to gain access to computer systems, normally for

the benefit of some third party, without the user’s permission. Malware includes
computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware and other
malicious programs.

Types of Malware:

 Viruses –
A Virus is a malicious executable code attached to another executable file.
The virus spreads when an infected file is passed from system to system.
Viruses can be harmless or they can modify or delete data. Opening a file

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can trigger a virus. Once a program virus is active, it will infect other
programs on the computer.
 Worms –
Worms replicate themselves on the system, attaching themselves to
different files and looking for pathways between computers, such as
computer network that shares common file storage areas. Worms usually
slow down networks. A virus needs a host program to run but worms can
run by themselves. After a worm affects a host, it is able to spread very
quickly over the network.
 Spyware –
Its purpose is to steal private information from a computer system for a
third party. Spyware collects information and sends it to the hacker.

 Trojan horse –
A Trojan horse is malware that carries out malicious operations under the
appearance of a desired operation such as playing an online game. A Trojan
horse varies from a virus because the Trojan binds itself to non-executable
files, such as image files, audio files.
 Logic Bombs –
A logic bomb is a malicious program that uses a trigger to activate the
malicious code. The logic bomb remains non-functioning until that trigger
event happens. Once triggered, a logic bomb implements a malicious code
that causes harm to a computer. Cybersecurity specialists recently
discovered logic bombs that attack and destroy the hardware components
in a workstation or server including the cooling fans, hard drives, and
power supplies. The logic bomb overdrives these devices until they
overheat or fail.
 Ransomware –
Ransomware grasps a computer system or the data it contains until the
victim makes a payment. Ransomware encrypts data in the computer with
a key which is unknown to the user. The user has to pay a ransom (price) to
the criminals to retrieve data. Once the amount is paid the victim can
resume using his/her system.
 Backdoors –
A backdoor bypasses the usual authentication used to access a system. The
purpose of the backdoor is to grant the cyber criminals future access to the

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system even if the organization fixes the original vulnerability used to

attack the system.
 Rootkits –
A rootkit modifies the OS to make a backdoor. Attackers then use the
backdoor to access the computer distantly. Most rootkits take advantage of
software vulnerabilities to modify system files.
 Keyloggers –
Keylogger records everything the user types on his/her computer system to
obtain passwords and other sensitive information and send them to the
source of the keylogging program.

Steganography

Steganography, or cover writing, is a method where a secret method is converted

into fake looking message. This technique helps to keep a message secret. It is
pretty difficult to use and understand. Structure of data remains unaltered in
Steganography. It is used in text, audio, video or images.

Steganography is a method in which secret message is hidden in a cover media.

Steganography means covered writing. Steganography is the idea to prevent
secret information by creating the suspicion. Steganography is less popular than
Cryptography. In steganography, structure of data is not usually altered.
The forms of steganography are:

1. Text
2. Audio
3. Video
4. Images
5. Network or Protocol

Cryptography

Cryptography or secret writing, is a method where a secret method is converted

in cipher text and sent to other person who then decrypt the cipher text into plain
text. Cryptography can be classified as Symmetric key cryptography or
Asymmetric key cryptography.

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Cryptography means secret writing. In cryptography, sender does not send

message directly to the receiver, before sending information to the receiver
information or plain text is converted into cipher text by using some encryption
algorithm then send to the receiver and receiver decrypt the cipher text into plain
text to read the original information.
It is of two types:

1. Symmetric key cryptography

2. Asymmetric key cryptography

Following are some of the important differences between Steganography and

Cryptography.

Sr. Key Steganography Cryptography

No.
Type Steganography refers to Cryptography refers to Secret
1
Cover Writing. Writing.
Popularity Steganography is less Cryptography is more popular
2 popular than than Steganography.
Cryptography.
Integrity Structure of data remains Structure of data can be altered.
3
same.
Attack Attack in Steganography Attack in Cryptography is
is termed as Steganalysis. termed as Cryptanalysis.
4

Security Steganography supports Cryptography supports

Principles Confidentiality and Confidentiality, Authentication,
5 Authentication. Data integrity and Non-
repudiation.

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Sr. Key Steganography Cryptography

No.
Parameter Steganography requires a Cryptography may not need any
6 parameter like key. key.

Secret-Key Algorithms and Public-Key Algorithms

Privacy

The concept of how to achieve privacy has not been changed for thousands of
years: the message cannot be encrypted. The message must be rendered as
opaque to all the unauthorized parties. A good encryption/decryption technique
is used to achieve privacy to some extent. This technique ensures that the
eavesdropper cannot understand the contents of the message.

Encryption/Decryption

Encryption: Encryption means that the sender converts the original information
into another form and sends the unintelligible message over the network.

Decryption: Decryption reverses the Encryption process in order to transform the

message back to the original form.

The data which is to be encrypted at the sender site is known as plaintext, and the
encrypted data is known as ciphertext. The data is decrypted at the receiver site.

There are two types of Encryption/Decryption techniques:

o Privacy with secret key Encryption/Decryption

o Privacy with public key Encryption/Decryption

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Secret Key Encryption/Decryption technique

o In Secret Key Encryption/Decryption technique, the same key is used by

both the parties, i.e., the sender and receiver.
o The sender uses the secret key and encryption algorithm to encrypt the
data; the receiver uses this key and decryption algorithm to decrypt the
data.
o In Secret Key Encryption/Decryption technique, the algorithm used for
encryption is the inverse of the algorithm used for decryption. It means
that if the encryption algorithm uses a combination of addition and
multiplication, then the decryption algorithm uses a combination of
subtraction and division.
o The secret key encryption algorithm is also known as symmetric encryption
algorithm because the same secret key is used in bidirectional
communication.
o In secret key encryption/decryption algorithm, the secret code is used by
the computer to encrypt the information before it is sent over the network
to another computer.

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o The secret key requires that we should know which computers are talking
to each other so that we can install the key on each computer.

Data Encryption Standard (DES)

o The Data Encryption Standard (DES) was designed by IBM and adopted by
the U.S. government as the standard encryption method for nonmilitary
and nonclassified use.
o The Data Encryption Standard is a standard used for encryption, and it is a
form of Secret Key Cryptography.

Advantage

Efficient: The secret key algorithms are more efficient as it takes less time to
encrypt the message than to encrypt the message by using a public key
encryption algorithm. The reason for this is that the size of the key is small. Due to
this reason, Secret Key Algorithms are mainly used for encryption and decryption.

Disadvantages of Secret Key Encryption

The Secret Key Encryption/Decryption has the following disadvantages:

o Each pair of users must have a secret key. If the number of people wants to
use this method in the world is N, then there are N(N-1)/2 secret keys. For
example, for one million people, then there are half billion secret keys.
o The distribution of keys among different parties can be very difficult. This
problem can be resolved by combining the Secret Key
Encryption/Decryption with the Public Key Encryption/Decryption
algorithm.

Public Key Encryption/Decryption technique

o There are two keys in public key encryption: a private key and a public key.
o The private key is given to the receiver while the public key is provided to
the public.

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In the above figure, we see that A is sending the message to user B. 'A' uses the
public key to encrypt the data while 'B' uses the private key to decrypt the data.

o In public key Encryption/Decryption, the public key used by the sender is

different from the private key used by the receiver.
o The public key is available to the public while the private key is kept by each
individual.
o The most commonly used public key algorithm is known as RSA.

Advantages of Public Key Encryption

o The main restriction of private key encryption is the sharing of a secret key.
A third party cannot use this key. In public key encryption, each entity
creates a pair of keys, and they keep the private one and distribute the
public key.
o The number of keys in public key encryption is reduced tremendously. For
example, for one million users to communicate, only two million keys are
required, not a half-billion keys as in the case of secret key encryption.

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Disadvantages of Public Key Encryption

o Speed: One of the major disadvantage of the public-key encryption is that it

is slower than secret-key encryption. In secret key encryption, a single
shared key is used to encrypt and decrypt the message which speeds up the
process while in public key encryption, different two keys are used, both
related to each other by a complex mathematical process. Therefore, we
can say that encryption and decryption take more time in public key
encryption.
o Authentication: A public key encryption does not have a built-in
authentication. Without authentication, the message can be interpreted or
intercepted without the user's knowledge.
o Inefficient: The main disadvantage of the public key is its complexity. If we
want the method to be effective, large numbers are needed. But in public
key encryption, converting the plaintext into ciphertext using long keys
takes a lot of time. Therefore, the public key encryption algorithms are
efficient for short messages not for long messages.

Differences b/w Secret Key Encryption & Public Key Encryption

Basis for Secret Key Encryption Public Key Encryption

Comparison

Define Secret Key Encryption is Public Key Encryption is

defined as the technique that defined as the technique that
uses a single shared key to uses two different keys for
encrypt and decrypt the encryption and decryption.
message.

Efficieny It is efficient as this It is inefficient as this

technique is recommended technique is used only for
for large amounts of text. short messages.

Other name It is also known as Symmetric It is also known as Asymmetric

Key encryption. Key Encryption.

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Speed Its speed is high as it uses a Its speed is slow as it uses two
single key for encryption and different keys, both keys are
decryption. related to each other through
the complicated mathematical
process.

Algorithms The Secret key algorithms are The Public key algorithms are
DES, 3DES, AES & RCA. Diffie-Hellman, RSA.

Purpose The main purpose of the The main purpose of the

secret key algorithm is to public key algorithm is to
transmit the bulk data. share the keys securely.

Digital Signature

The Digital Signature is a technique which is used to validate the authenticity and
integrity of the message. We know that there are four aspects of security: privacy,
authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation. We have already discussed the
first aspect of security and other three aspects can be achieved by using a digital
signature.

The basic idea behind the Digital Signature is to sign a document. When we send a
document electronically, we can also sign it. We can sign a document in two ways:
to sign a whole document and to sign a digest.

Signing the Whole Document

o In Digital Signature, a public key encryption technique is used to sign a

document. However, the roles of a public key and private key are different
here. The sender uses a private key to encrypt the message while the
receiver uses the public key of the sender to decrypt the message.
o In Digital Signature, the private key is used for encryption while the public
key is used for decryption.
o Digital Signature cannot be achieved by using secret key encryption.

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Digital Signature is used to achieve the following three aspects:

o Integrity: The Digital Signature preserves the integrity of a message

because, if any malicious attack intercepts a message and partially or totally
changes it, then the decrypted message would be impossible.
o Authentication: We can use the following reasoning to show how the
message is authenticated. If an intruder (user X) sends a message
pretending that it is coming from someone else (user A), user X uses her
own private key to encrypt the message. The message is decrypted by using
the public key of user A. Therefore this makes the message unreadable.
Encryption with X's private key and decryption with A's public key results in
garbage value.
o Non-Repudiation: Digital Signature also provides non-repudiation. If the
sender denies sending the message, then her private key corresponding to
her public key is tested on the plaintext. If the decrypted message is the
same as the original message, then we know that the sender has sent the
message.

Note: Digital Signature does not provide privacy. If there is a need for privacy,
then another layer of encryption/decryption is applied.

Signing the Digest

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o Public key encryption is efficient if the message is short. If the message is

long, a public key encryption is inefficient to use. The solution to this
problem is to let the sender sign a digest of the document instead of the
whole document.
o The sender creates a miniature version (digest) of the document and then
signs it, the receiver checks the signature of the miniature version.
o The hash function is used to create a digest of the message. The hash
function creates a fixed-size digest from the variable-length message.
o The two most common hash functions used: MD5 (Message Digest 5) and
SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1). The first one produces 120-bit digest
while the second one produces a 160-bit digest.
o A hash function must have two properties to ensure the success:
o First, the digest must be one way, i.e., the digest can only be created
from the message but not vice versa.
o Second, hashing is a one-to-one function, i.e., two messages should
not create the same digest.

Following are the steps taken to ensure security:

o The miniature version (digest) of the message is created by using a hash

function.
o The digest is encrypted by using the sender's private key.
o After the digest is encrypted, then the encrypted digest is attached to the
original message and sent to the receiver.
o The receiver receives the original message and encrypted digest and
separates the two. The receiver implements the hash function on the
original message to create the second digest, and it also decrypts the
received digest by using the public key of the sender. If both the digests are
same, then all the aspects of security are preserved.

At the Sender site

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At the Receiver site

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Virtual Private Networks VPN

A virtual private network (VPN) is a technology for using the Internet or another
intermediate network to connect computers to isolated remote computer
networks that would otherwise be inaccessible. A VPN provides varying levels of
security so that traffic sent through the VPN connection stays isolated from other
computers on the intermediate network, either through the use of a dedicated
connection from one “end” of the VPN to the other, or through encryption. VPNs
can connect individual users to a remote network or connect multiple networks
together.

For example, users may use a VPN to connect to their work computer terminal
from home and access their email, files, images, etc.

Through VPNs, users are able to access resources on remote networks, such as
files, printers, databases, or internal websites. VPN remote users get the
impression of being directly connected to the central network via a point-to-point
link.

An image of VPN

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VPN systems can be classified by:

 the protocols used to tunnel the traffic

 the tunnel’s termination point, i.e., customer edge or network-provider
edge
 whether they offer site-to-site or remote-access connectivity
 the levels of security provided
 the OSI layer they present to the connecting network, such as Layer 2
circuits or Layer 3 network connectivity

Security mechanisms
VPNs typically require remote access to be authenticated and make use of
encryption techniques to prevent disclosure of private information.

VPNs provide security through tunneling protocols and security procedures such
as encryption. Their security model provides:

 Confidentiality such that even if traffic is sniffed, an attacker would only see
encrypted data which he/she cannot understand
 Allowing sender authentication to prevent unauthorized users from
accessing the VPN
 Message integrity to detect any instances of transmitted messages having
been tampered with

Secure VPN protocols include the following:

 IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) was developed by the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF), and was initially developed for IPv6, which
requires it. This standards-based security protocol is also widely used with
IPv4. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol frequently runs over IPSec. Its design
meets most security goals: authentication, integrity, and confidentiality.
IPSec functions through encrypting and encapsulating an IP packet inside an
IPSec packet. De-encapsulation happens at the end of the tunnel, where
the original IP packet is decrypted and forwarded to its intended
destination.
 Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) can tunnel an entire network’s traffic, as
it does in the OpenVPN project, or secure an individual connection. A
number of vendors provide remote access VPN capabilities through SSL. An
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SSL VPN can connect from locations where IPsec runs into trouble with
Network Address Translation and firewall rules.
 Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS), is used in Cisco AnyConnect
VPN, to solve the issues SSL/TLS has with tunneling over UDP.
 Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE) works with the Point-to-Point
Tunneling Protocol and in several compatible implementations on other
platforms.
 Microsoft’s Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), introduced in
Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. SSTP tunnels
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) or Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol traffic through
an SSL 3.0 channel.
 MPVPN (Multi Path Virtual Private Network). Ragula Systems Development
Company owns the registered trademark “MPVPN”.
 Secure Shell (SSH) VPN – OpenSSH offers VPN tunneling (distinct from port
forwarding) to secure remote connections to a network or inter-network
links. OpenSSH server provides a limited number of concurrent tunnels and
the VPN feature itself does not support personal authentication.

Authentication
Tunnel endpoints must authenticate before secure VPN tunnels can be
established.
User-created remote access VPNs may use passwords, biometrics, two-factor
authentication or other cryptographic methods.
Network-to-network tunnels often use passwords or digital certificates, as they
permanently store the key to allow the tunnel to establish automatically and
without intervention from the user.

Firewalls

A firewall can either be software-based or hardware-based and is used to help

keep a network secure. Its primary objective is to control the incoming and
outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data packets and determining whether
it should be allowed through or not, based on a predetermined rule set. A
network’s firewall builds a bridge between an internal network that is assumed to
be secure and trusted, and another network, usually an external (inter)network,
such as the Internet, that is not assumed to be secure and trusted.

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Many personal computer operating systems include software-based firewalls to

protect against threats from the public Internet. Many routers that pass data
between networks contain firewall components and, conversely, many firewalls
can perform basic routing functions.

An image of firewall

An example of a user interface for a firewall on Ubuntu

Evolution
First generation: packet filters

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The first paper published on firewall technology was in 1988, when engineers
from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) developed filter systems known as
packet filter firewalls. This fairly basic system was the first generation of what
became a highly involved and technical internet security feature. At AT&T Bell
Labs, Bill Cheswick and Steve Bellovin were continuing their research in packet
filtering and developed a working model for their own company based on their
original first generation architecture.

Packet filters act by inspecting the “packets” which transfer between computers
on the Internet. If a packet matches the packet filter’s set of rules, the packet
filter will drop (silently discard) the packet, or reject it (discard it, and send “error
responses” to the source).

This type of packet filtering pays no attention to whether a packet is part of an

existing stream of traffic (i.e. it stores no information on connection “state”).
Instead, it filters each packet based only on information contained in the packet
itself (most commonly using a combination of the packet’s source and destination
address, its protocol, and, for TCP and UDP traffic, the port number).

TCP and UDP protocols constitute most communication over the Internet, and
because TCP and UDP traffic by convention uses well known ports for particular
types of traffic, a “stateless” packet filter can distinguish between, and thus
control, those types of traffic (such as web browsing, remote printing, email
transmission, file transfer), unless the machines on each side of the packet filter
are both using the same non-standard ports.

Packet filtering firewalls work mainly on the first three layers of the OSI reference
model, which means most of the work is done between the network and physical
layers, with a little bit of peeking into the transport layer to figure out source and
destination port numbers. When a packet originates from the sender and filters
through a firewall, the device checks for matches to any of the packet filtering
rules that are configured in the firewall and drops or rejects the packet
accordingly. When the packet passes through the firewall, it filters the packet on a
protocol/port number basis (GSS). For example, if a rule in the firewall exists to
block telnet access, then the firewall will block the TCP protocol for port number
23.

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Second generation: “stateful” filters

From 1989-1990 three colleagues from AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dave Presetto,
Janardan Sharma, and Kshitij Nigam, developed the second generation of
firewalls, calling them circuit level firewalls.

Second-generation firewalls perform the work of their first-generation

predecessors but operate up to layer 4 (transport layer) of the OSI model. This is
achieved by retaining packets until enough are available to make a judgement
about its state. Known as stateful packet inspection, it records all connections
passing through it and determines whether a packet is the start of a new
connection, a part of an existing connection, or not part of any connection.
Though static rules are still used, these rules can now contain connection state as
one of their test criteria.

Certain denial-of-service attacks bombard the firewall with thousands of fake

connection packets in an attempt to overwhelm it by filling its connection state
memory.

Third generation: application layer

The key benefit of application layer filtering is that it can “understand” certain
applications and protocols (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Domain Name
System (DNS), or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)). This is useful as it is able to
detect if an unwanted protocol is attempting to bypass the firewall on an allowed
port, or detect if a protocol is being abused in any harmful way.

The existing deep packet inspection functionality of modern firewalls can be

shared by Intrusion prevention systems (IPS).

Another axis of development is about integrating identity of users into Firewall

rules. Many firewalls provide such features by binding user identities to IP or MAC
addresses, which is very approximate and can be easily turned around.

Types
There are different types of firewalls depending on where the communication is
taking place, where the communication is intercepted and the state that is being
traced.

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Network layer or packet filters

Network layer firewalls, also called packet filters, operate at a relatively low level
of the TCP/IP protocol stack, not allowing packets to pass through the firewall
unless they match the established rule set. The firewall administrator may define
the rules; or default rules may apply. The term “packet filter” originated in the
context of BSD operating systems.

Network layer firewalls generally fall into two sub-categories, stateful and
stateless. Stateful firewalls maintain context about active sessions, and use that
“state information” to speed packet processing. Any existing network connection
can be described by several properties, including source and destination IP
address, UDP or TCP ports, and the current stage of the connection’s lifetime
(including session initiation, handshaking, data transfer, or completion
connection). If a packet does not match an existing connection, it will be
evaluated according to the ruleset for new connections. If a packet matches an
existing connection based on comparison with the firewall’s state table, it will be
allowed to pass without further processing.

Stateless firewalls require less memory, and can be faster for simple filters that
require less time to filter than to look up a session. They may also be necessary
for filtering stateless network protocols that have no concept of a session.
However, they cannot make more complex decisions based on what stage
communications between hosts have reached.

Modern firewalls can filter traffic based on many packet attributes like source IP
address, source port, destination IP address or port, destination service like
WWW or FTP. They can filter based on protocols, TTL values, netblock of
originator, of the source, and many other attributes.

Commonly used packet filters on various versions of Unix are ipf (various), ipfw
(FreeBSD/Mac OS X), pf (OpenBSD, and all other BSDs), iptables/ipchains (Linux).

Application-layer
Application-layer firewalls work on the application level of the TCP/IP stack (i.e.,
all browser traffic, or all telnet or ftp traffic), and may intercept all packets
traveling to or from an application. They block other packets (usually dropping
them without acknowledgment to the sender).

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On inspecting all packets for improper content, firewalls can restrict or prevent
outright the spread of networked computer worms and trojans. The additional
inspection criteria can add extra latency to the forwarding of packets to their
destination.

Application firewalls function by determining whether a process should accept

any given connection. Application firewalls accomplish their function by hooking
into socket calls to filter the connections between the application layer and the
lower layers of the OSI model. Application firewalls that hook into socket calls are
also referred to as socket filters. Application firewalls work much like a packet
filter but application filters apply filtering rules (allow/block) on a per process
basis instead of filtering connections on a per port basis. Generally, prompts are
used to define rules for processes that have not yet received a connection. It is
rare to find application firewalls not combined or used in conjunction with a
packet filter.

Also, application firewalls further filter connections by examining the process ID

of data packets against a ruleset for the local process involved in the data
transmission. The extent of the filtering that occurs is defined by the provided
ruleset. Given the variety of software that exists, application firewalls only have
more complex rulesets for the standard services, such as sharing services. These
per process rulesets have limited efficacy in filtering every possible association
that may occur with other processes. Also, these per process ruleset cannot
defend against modification of the process via exploitation, such as memory
corruption exploits. Because of these limitations, application firewalls are
beginning to be supplanted by a new generation of application firewalls that rely
on mandatory access control (MAC), also referred to as sandboxing, to protect
vulnerable services.

Proxies
A proxy server (running either on dedicated hardware or as software on a
general-purpose machine) may act as a firewall by responding to input packets
(connection requests, for example) in the manner of an application, while
blocking other packets. A proxy server is a gateway from one network to another
for a specific network application, in the sense that it functions as a proxy on
behalf of the network user.

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Proxies make tampering with an internal system from the external network more
difficult and misuse of one internal system would not necessarily cause a security
breach exploitable from outside the firewall (as long as the application proxy
remains intact and properly configured). Conversely, intruders may hijack a
publicly reachable system and use it as a proxy for their own purposes; the proxy
then masquerades as that system to other internal machines. While use of
internal address spaces enhances security, crackers may still employ methods
such as IP spoofing to attempt to pass packets to a target network.

Network address translation

Firewalls often have network address translation (NAT) functionality, and the
hosts protected behind a firewall commonly have addresses in the “private
address range”, as defined in RFC 1918. Firewalls often have such functionality to
hide the true address of protected hosts. Originally, the NAT function was
developed to address the limited number of IPv4 routable addresses that could
be used or assigned to companies or individuals as well as reduce both the
amount and therefore cost of obtaining enough public addresses for every
computer in an organization. Hiding the addresses of protected devices has
become an increasingly important defense against network reconnaissance.

There are several types of firewall techniques:

 Packet filter: Looks at each packet entering or leaving the network and
accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Packet filtering is fairly
effective and transparent to users, but it is difficult to configure. In
addition, it is susceptible to IP spoofing.
 Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to specific applications,
such as FTP and Telnet servers. This is very effective, but can impose a
performance degradation.
 Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP
connection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can
flow between the hosts without further checking.
 Proxy server: Intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network. The
proxy server effectively hides the true network addresses.

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In practice, many firewalls use two or more of these techniques in concert. A

firewall is considered a first line of defense in protecting private information. For
greater security, data can be encrypted.

Mobile Technology & Reach

Mobile technology has grown leaps and bounds over the last few decades. The
journey from the clunky wireless phone to sleek smartphone has been peppered
by a number of amazing innovations and discoveries.

With the 3G mobiles available today, users can do a lot more with their
smartphones than just sending a voicemail or SMS. They can browse the web,
check the weather, read a book, prepare a to-do-list, carry their favorite music
around, find their way around a new city with GPRS, and do much more.

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Mobile Marketing Technology & Reach

In such a scenario, every business person willing to practice the mobile marketing
technique has to be aware about the following top 5 ways in which mobile
technologies have changed the way users interact with mobile devices −

Anywhere anytime access

Unlike laptops and desktops, tablet and mobile devices are easy to carry around.
Users can access the internet in their mobile devices at anytime and anywhere
and it has decreased use of the laptops.

Mobile Apps are easier than websites

Companies that have an online customer base for instance e-commerce portals
have noticed that the sales and subscriptions they get from their apps are higher
in comparison to that of their websites. This means, online purchasing from the
mobile phones are easier.

Advertisements should be personalized

Most of the users feel that the mobile are more personal device than say a laptop
or a desktop. Therefore, they expect that the content they receive on their mobile
phones must be personalized as well.

Social media is a prime channel

Whether your customers are business professionals, students, home-makers,

teenagers etc., commonly, they spend more than 3 hours a week on social media
channels, such as Twitter, Facebook etc. Surprisingly, most of these customers
access these channels on their smartphones.

Mobiles are turning into mini-computers

Slowly but surely technicians and developers are packing the mobile phones with
computer-like features. With bigger screens, faster performance, optimum
storage capacity, longer battery life, and a ton of productivity booster

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applications. The evolution of phones from a simple calling device to multi-

tasking-pocket-size computers has revolutionized the world.

Global System for Mobile communication (GSM)

GSM

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications. GSM is one of the
most widely used digital wireless telephony system. It was developed in Europe in
1980s and is now international standard in Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. Any
GSM handset with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card can be used in any
country that uses this standard. Every SIM card has a unique identification
number. It has memory to store applications and data like phone numbers,
processor to carry out its functions and software to send and receive messages

GSM technology uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) to support up to

eight calls simultaneously. It also uses encryption to make the data more secure.

The frequencies used by the international standard is 900 MHz to 1800 MHz
However, GSM phones used in the US use 1900 MHz frequency and hence are not
compatible with the international system.

 GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communication. It is a digital

cellular technology used for transmitting mobile voice and data services.

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 The concept of GSM emerged from a cell-based mobile radio system at Bell
Laboratories in the early 1970s.
 GSM is the name of a standardization group established in 1982 to create a
common European mobile telephone standard.
 GSM is the most widely accepted standard in telecommunications and it is
implemented globally.
 GSM is a circuit-switched system that divides each 200 kHz channel into
eight 25 kHz time-slots. GSM operates on the mobile communication bands
900 MHz and 1800 MHz in most parts of the world. In the US, GSM
operates in the bands 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.
 GSM owns a market share of more than 70 percent of the world's digital
cellular subscribers.
 GSM makes use of narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
technique for transmitting signals.
 GSM was developed using digital technology. It has an ability to carry 64
kbps to 120 Mbps of data rates.
 Presently GSM supports more than one billion mobile subscribers in more
than 210 countries throughout the world.
 GSM provides basic to advanced voice and data services including roaming
service. Roaming is the ability to use your GSM phone number in another
GSM network.

Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) architecture comprises of the

following components −

 Mobile Station : The mobile station is the mobile phone, which comprises
of the mobile handset and SIM card. The mobile handset comprises of the
transceiver, the display and its processor. SIM stands for SubscriberIdentity
Module. It is a removable chip that contains account information of the
subscriber and connects the handset to the mobile network system.
 Air Interface : The air interface is the interface between the mobile station
and the Base Transceiver Station. It is also called the UM interface as it is
analogous to U interface of ISDN. GSM runs on a range of frequencies
including 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. It uses frequency division duplex (FDD)
that divides the channel into several sub-bands. Each of the sub-bands are
shared by multiple mobiles through time division multiplexing (TDM).

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 Base Station Subsystem : It is a connection between the mobile station and

the mobile switching center. It comprises of two parts −
o Base Transceiver Station (BTU) − It handles the protocols for
communication with the mobile stations using radio transceivers.
o Base Station Controller (BSC) − It controls the radio resources of the
cell, interfaces with the mobile switching center and also handles
handoff.
 Mobile Switching Center (MSC) : It provides the basic network connection
to the mobile network and gives access to other networks like PSTN, ISDN
and the Internet. It maintains databases to locate mobiles. The databases
are −
o Visitor Location Register (VLR) − It is a database of nearby mobiles
that are managed by a cell.
o Home Location Register (HLR) − It is a database of last known
location of each mobile.
o International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) − It is an account of
all the mobiles wherein each mobile is identified by its own IMEI
number.

Diagrammatic Representation of GSM Architecture

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Why GSM?

Listed below are the features of GSM that account for its popularity and wide
acceptance.

 Improved spectrum efficiency

 International roaming
 Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BSs)
 High-quality speech
 Compatibility with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and other
telephone company services
 Support for new services

User Services

GSM offers much more than just voice telephony. Contact your local GSM
network operator to the specific services that you can avail.

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GSM offers three basic types of services:

 Telephony services or teleservices

 Data services or bearer services
 Supplementary services

Teleservices

The abilities of a Bearer Service are used by a Teleservice to transport data. These
services are further transited in the following ways:

Voice Calls

The most basic Teleservice supported by GSM is telephony. This includes full-rate
speech at 13 kbps and emergency calls, where the nearest emergency-service
provider is notified by dialing three digits.

Videotext and Facsmile

Another group of teleservices includes Videotext access, Teletex transmission,

Facsmile alternate speech and Facsmile Group 3, Automatic Facsmile Group, 3
etc.

Short Text Messages

Short Messaging Service (SMS) service is a text messaging service that allows
sending and receiving text messages on your GSM mobile phone. In addition to
simple text messages, other text data including news, sports, financial, language,
and location-based data can also be transmitted.

Bearer Services

Data services or Bearer Services are used through a GSM phone. to receive and
send data is the essential building block leading to widespread mobile Internet
access and mobile data transfer. GSM currently has a data transfer rate of 9.6k.
New developments that will push up data transfer rates for GSM users are HSCSD
(high speed circuit switched data) and GPRS (general packet radio service) are
now available.

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Supplementary Services

Supplementary services are additional services that are provided in addition to

teleservices and bearer services. These services include caller identification, call
forwarding, call waiting, multi-party conversations, and barring of outgoing
(international) calls, among others. A brief description of supplementary services
is given here:

 Conferencing : It allows a mobile subscriber to establish a multiparty

conversation, i.e., a simultaneous conversation between three or more
subscribers to setup a conference call. This service is only applicable to
normal telephony.
 Call Waiting : This service notifies a mobile subscriber of an incoming call
during a conversation. The subscriber can answer, reject, or ignore the
incoming call.
 Call Hold : This service allows a subscriber to put an incoming call on hold
and resume after a while. The call hold service is applicable to normal
telephony.
 Call Forwarding : Call Forwarding is used to divert calls from the original
recipient to another number. It is normally set up by the subscriber himself.
It can be used by the subscriber to divert calls from the Mobile Station
when the subscriber is not available, and so to ensure that calls are not lost.
 Call Barring : Call Barring is useful to restrict certain types of outgoing calls
such as ISD or stop incoming calls from undesired numbers. Call barring is a
flexible service that enables the subscriber to conditionally bar calls.
 Number Identification : There are following supplementary services related
to number identification:
o Calling Line Identification Presentation : This service displays the
telephone number of the calling party on your screen.
o Calling Line Identification Restriction : A person not wishing their
number to be presented to others subscribes to this service.
o Connected Line Identification Presentation : This service is provided
to give the calling party the telephone number of the person to
whom they are connected. This service is useful in situations such as
forwarding's where the number connected is not the number dialled.
o Connected Line Identification Restriction : There are times when the
person called does not wish to have their number presented and so

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they would subscribe to this person. Normally, this overrides the

presentation service.
o Malicious Call Identification : The malicious call identification service
was provided to combat the spread of obscene or annoying calls. The
victim should subscribe to this service, and then they could cause
known malicious calls to be identified in the GSM network, using a
simple command.
 Advice of Charge (AoC) : This service was designed to give the subscriber an
indication of the cost of the services as they are used. Furthermore, those
service providers who wish to offer rental services to subscribers without
their own SIM can also utilize this service in a slightly different form. AoC
for data calls is provided on the basis of time measurements.
 Closed User Groups (CUGs) : This service is meant for groups of subscribers
who wish to call only each other and no one else.
 Unstructured supplementary services data (USSD) : This allows operator-
defined individual services.

CDMA

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a sort of multiplexing that facilitates

various signals to occupy a single transmission channel. It optimizes the use of
available bandwidth. The technology is commonly used in ultra-high-frequency
(UHF) cellular telephone systems, bands ranging between the 800-MHz and 1.9-
GHz.

CDMA Overview

Code Division Multiple Access system is very different from time and frequency
multiplexing. In this system, a user has access to the whole bandwidth for the
entire duration. The basic principle is that different CDMA codes are used to
distinguish among the different users.

Techniques generally used are direct sequence spread spectrum modulation (DS-
CDMA), frequency hopping or mixed CDMA detection (JDCDMA). Here, a signal is
generated which extends over a wide bandwidth. A code called spreading code is
used to perform this action. Using a group of codes, which are orthogonal to each

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other, it is possible to select a signal with a given code in the presence of many
other signals with different orthogonal codes.

How Does CDMA Work?

CDMA allows up to 61 concurrent users in a 1.2288 MHz channel by processing

each voice packet with two PN codes. There are 64 Walsh codes available to
differentiate between calls and theoretical limits. Operational limits and quality
issues will reduce the maximum number of calls somewhat lower than this value.

In fact, many different "signals" baseband with different spreading codes can be
modulated on the same carrier to allow many different users to be supported.
Using different orthogonal codes, interference between the signals is minimal.
Conversely, when signals are received from several mobile stations, the base
station is capable of isolating each as they have different orthogonal spreading
codes.

The following figure shows the technicality of the CDMA system. During the
propagation, we mixed the signals of all users, but by that you use the same code
as the code that was used at the time of sending the receiving side. You can take
out only the signal of each user.

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CDMA Capacity

The factors deciding the CDMA capacity are −

 Processing Gain
 Signal to Noise Ratio
 Voice Activity Factor
 Frequency Reuse Efficiency

Capacity in CDMA is soft, CDMA has all users on each frequency and users are
separated by code. This means, CDMA operates in the presence of noise and
interference.

In addition, neighboring cells use the same frequencies, which means no re-use.
So, CDMA capacity calculations should be very simple. No code channel in a cell,
multiplied by no cell. But it is not that simple. Although not available code
channels are 64, it may not be possible to use a single time, since the CDMA
frequency is the same.

Centralized Methods

 The band used in CDMA is 824 MHz to 894 MHz (50 MHz + 20 MHz
separation).
 Frequency channel is divided into code channels.
 1.25 MHz of FDMA channel is divided into 64 code channels.

Processing Gain

CDMA is a spread spectrum technique. Each data bit is spread by a code

sequence. This means, energy per bit is also increased. This means that we get a
gain of this.

P (gain) = 10log (W/R)

W is Spread Rate

R is Data Rate

For CDMA P (gain) = 10 log (1228800/9600) = 21dB

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This is a gain factor and the actual data propagation rate. On an average, a typical
transmission condition requires a signal to the noise ratio of 7 dB for the
adequate quality of voice.

Translated into a ratio, signal must be five times stronger than noise.

Actual processing gain = P (gain) - SNR

= 21 – 7 = 14dB

CDMA uses variable rate coder

The Voice Activity Factor of 0.4 is considered = -4dB.

Hence, CDMA has 100% frequency reuse. Use of same frequency in surrounding
cells causes some additional interference.

In CDMA frequency, reuse efficiency is 0.67 (70% eff.) = -1.73dB

Advantages of CDMA

CDMA has a soft capacity. The greater the number of codes, the more the number
of users. It has the following advantages −

 CDMA requires a tight power control, as it suffers from near-far effect. In

other words, a user near the base station transmitting with the same power
will drown the signal latter. All signals must have more or less equal power
at the receiver
 Rake receivers can be used to improve signal reception. Delayed versions of
time (a chip or later) of the signal (multipath signals) can be collected and
used to make decisions at the bit level.
 Flexible transfer may be used. Mobile base stations can switch without
changing operator. Two base stations receive mobile signal and the mobile
receives signals from the two base stations.
 Transmission Burst − reduces interference.

Disadvantages of CDMA

The disadvantages of using CDMA are as follows −

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 The code length must be carefully selected. A large code length can induce
delay or may cause interference.
 Time synchronization is required.
 Gradual transfer increases the use of radio resources and may reduce
capacity.
 As the sum of the power received and transmitted from a base station
needs constant tight power control. This can result in several handovers.

Usage

o It is used in the Global Positioning System (GPS).

o It is used by several mobile phone companies (e.g. Qualcomm standard IS-
2000 also known as CDMA2000)
o W-CDMA is used in UTMS 3G mobile phone standard.
o CDMA has been used in OmniTRACS satellite system for transportation.

Categories of CDMA

o Synchronous CDMA (orthogonal codes)

o Asynchronous CDMA (pseudorandom codes)

Difference between CDMA and GSM

The major difference between CDMA and GSM are given below.

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Criteria CDMA GSM

Technology CDMA is based on GSM operates on the wedge spectrum.

spread-spectrum it uses both time division multiple access
technology which (TDMA) and frequency division multiple
makes the optimum access (fdma). TDMA provide multi-user
use of available access by cutting up the channel into
bandwidth. different time slice and fdma provides
the multi-user access by separating the
used frequency.

Security CDMA is more secure GSM is less secure than CDMA.

than GSM.

Global CDMA is used in usa GSM is used over 80% of the world
reach and some part of network in over 210 countries.
canada and japan.
CDMA is used only by GSM is used 76% of the users
24% of the users worldwide.
worldwide.

Data CDMA has faster data GSM has slower data transfer as
Transfer transfer as compared compared to CDMA.
Rate to GSM.

Radiation CDMA phones emits GSM phones emits continuous wave

exposure less radiation than pulses and emits almost 28 times more
GSM phones. radiation than CDMA phones.

Technical Challenges of Mobile Computing

Mobile Computing is defined as a computing environment which is mobile and

moves along with the user. There are various number of challenges that affected
mobile computing and it has to overcome them. Some of the major technical
challenges faced by mobile computing are:
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1. Mobility

2. Wireless Medium

3. Portability

These are explained as following below:

1. Mobility:
It is the most important aspect of mobile computing, but it has to face the certain
challenges which are :

 Auto configuration of the system, as the environment of the system is

developing continuously. Hence for every change, it has to configure itself
to the new situation.
 Location management is also a big objection in mobility. To manage the
location, following tasks are to be performed regularly over a fixed period
of time.
 Track user’s call.
 Update user’s position and data.
 To maintain the heterogenity is also a big task as the system is keep moving
in a large variation of situations
 Range of spectrum.
 Verification of security.

2. Wireless Medium:
The transmission medium in mobile computing is wireless, therefore the following
points are considered:

 Various interferences occurs in the mobile computing by the different

elements in the environment.
 Accuracy and quantity of bandwidth should be sufficient.
 Network cost is feasible.

3. Portability:
This means that the communication device moves, for eg. mobile phones. The
following mobile constraints are to be considered as the devices are also mobile:

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 Minimum number of resources are used.

 Security is very less, as security risks include the processing of fake
transactions, unauthorized access of data and program files, and the
physical theft or damage of the device.
 Restrictions of the battery.

Mobile IP

This is an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard communications

protocol designed to allow mobile devices' (such as laptop, PDA, mobile phone,
etc.) users to move from one network to another while maintaining their
permanent IP (Internet Protocol) address.

Defined in RFC (Request for Comments) 2002, mobile IP is an enhancement of the

internet protocol (IP) that adds mechanisms for forwarding internet traffic to
mobile devices (known as mobile nodes) when they are connecting through other
than their home network.

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The following case shows how a datagram moves from one point to another
within the Mobile IP framework.

o First of all, the internet host sends a datagram to the mobile node using the
mobile node's home address (normal IP routing process).
o If the mobile node (MN) is on its home network, the datagram is delivered
through the normal IP (Internet Protocol) process to the mobile node.
Otherwise the home agent picks up the datagram.
o If the mobile node (MN) is on foreign network, the home agent (HA)
forwards the datagram to the foreign agent.
o The foreign agent (FA) delivers the datagram to the mobile node.
o Datagrams from the MN to the Internet host are sent using normal IP
routing procedures. If the mobile node is on a foreign network, the packets
are delivered to the foreign agent. The FA forwards the datagram to the
Internet host.

In the case of wireless communications, the above illustrations depict the use of
wireless transceivers to transmit the datagrams to the mobile node. Also, all
datagrams between the Internet host and the MN use the mobile node's home
address regardless of whether the mobile node is on a home or foreign network.
The care-of address (COA) is used only for communication with mobility agents
and is never seen by the Internet host.

Components of Mobile IP

The mobile IP has following three components as follows:

1. Mobile Node (MN)

The mobile node is an end system or device such as a cell phone, PDA (Personal
Digital assistant), or laptop whose software enables network roaming capabilities.

2. Home Agent (HA)

The home agent provides several services for the mobile node and is located in
the home network. The tunnel for packets towards the mobile node starts at
home agent. The home agent maintains a location registry, i.e. it is informed of

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the mobile node's location by the current COA (care of address). Following
alternatives for the implementation of an HA exist.

o Home agent can be implemented on a router that is responsible for the

home network. This is obviously the best position, because without
optimization to mobile IP, all packets for the MN have to go through the
router anyway.
o If changing the router's software is not possible, the home agent could also
be implemented on an arbitrary node in the subset. One biggest
disadvantage of this solution is the double crossing of the router by the
packet if the MN is in a foreign network. A packet for the mobile node
comes in via the router; the HA sends it through the tunnel which again
crosses the router.

3. Foreign Agent (FA)

The foreign agent can provide several services to the mobile node during its visit
to the foreign network. The FA can have the COA (care or address) acting as a
tunnel endpoint and forwarding packets to the MN. The foreign agent can be the
default router for the MN.

Foreign agent can also provide security services because they belong to the
foreign network as opposed to the MN which is only visiting.

In short, FA is a router that may function as the point of attachment for the
mobile node when it roams to a foreign network delivers packets from the home
agent to the mobile node.

4. Care of Address (COA)

The Care- of- address defines the current location of the mobile node from an IP
point of view. All IP packets sent to the MN are delivered to the COA, not directly
to the IP address of the MN. Packet delivery toward the mobile node is done
using a tunnel. To be more precise, the COA marks the endpoint of the tunnel, i.e.
the address where packets exit the tunnel.

There are two different possibilities for the location of the care of address:

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1. Foreign Agent COA: The COA could be located at the foreign agent, i.e. the
COA is an IP address of the foreign agent. The foreign agent is the tunnel
endpoint and forwards packets to the MN. Many MN using the FA can
share this COA as common COA.
2. Co-located COA: The COA is co-located if the MN temporarily acquired an
additional IP address which acts as a COA. This address is now topologically
correct, and the tunnel endpoint is at the mobile node. Co-located address
can be acquired using services such as DHCP. One problem associated with
this approach is need for additional addresses if MNs request a COA. This is
not always a good idea considering the scarcity of IPv4 addresses.

5. Correspondent Node (CN)

At least one partner is needed for communication. The correspondent node

represents this partner for the MN. The correspondent node can be a fixed or
mobile node.

6. Home Network

The home network is the subset the MN belongs to with respect to its IP address.
No mobile IP support is needed within this network.

7. Foreign network

The foreign network is the current subset the MN visits and which is not the home
network.

Process of Mobile IP

The mobile IP process has following three main phases, which are:

1. Agent Discovery

During the agent discovery phase the HA and FA advertise their services on the
network by using the ICMP router discovery protocol (IROP).

Mobile IP defines two methods: agent advertisement and agent solicitation which
are in fact router discovery methods plus extensions.

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o Agent advertisement: For the first method, FA and HA advertise their

presence periodically using special agent advertisement messages. These
messages advertisement can be seen as a beacon broadcast into the
subnet. For this advertisement internet control message protocol (ICMP)
messages according to RFC 1256, are used with some mobility extensions.
o Agent solicitation: If no agent advertisements are present or the inter
arrival time is too high, and an MN has not received a COA, the mobile
node must send agent solicitations. These solicitations are again bases on
RFC 1256 for router solicitations.

2. Registration

The main purpose of the registration is to inform the home agent of the current
location for correct forwarding of packets.

Registration can be done in two ways depending on the location of the COA.

o If the COA is at the FA, the MN sends its registration request containing the
COA to the FA which is forwarding the request to the HA. The HA now set
up a mobility binding containing the mobile node's home IP address and
the current COA.

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Additionally, the mobility biding contains the lifetime of the registration which is
negotiated during the registration process. Registration expires automatically
after the lifetime and is deleted; so a mobile node should register before
expiration. After setting up the mobility binding, the HA send a reply message
back to the FA which forwards it to the MN.

o If the COA is co-located, registration can be very simpler. The mobile node
may send the request directly to the HA and vice versa. This by the way is
also the registration procedure for MNs returning to their home network.

3. Tunneling

A tunnel is used to establish a virtual pipe for data packets between a tunnel
entry and a tunnel endpoint. Packets which are entering in a tunnel are forwarded
inside the tunnel and leave the tunnel unchanged. Tunneling, i.e., sending a
packet through a tunnel is achieved with the help of encapsulation.

Tunneling is also known as "port forwarding" is the transmission and data

intended for use only within a private, usually corporate network through a public
network.

Mobile Communication Protocols

Any device that does not need to remain at one place to carry out its functions is
a mobile device. So laptops, smartphones and personal digital assistants are some
examples of mobile devices. Due to their portable nature, mobile devices connect
to networks wirelessly. Mobile devices typically use radio waves to communicate
with other devices and networks. Here we will discuss the protocols used to carry
out mobile communication.

Mobile communication protocols use multiplexing to send information.

Multiplexing is a method to combine multiple digital or analog signals into one
signal over the data channel. This ensures optimum utilization of expensive
resource and time. At the destination these signals are de-multiplexed to recover
individual signals.

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These are the types of multiplexing options available to communication

channels −

 FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) − Here each user is assigned a

different frequency from the complete spectrum. All the frequencies can
then simultaneously travel on the data channel.
 TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) − A single radio frequency is divided into
multiple slots and each slot is assigned to a different user. So multiple users
can be supported simultaneously.
 CDMA (Code Division Multiplexing) − Here several users share the same
frequency spectrum simultaneously. They are differentiated by assigning
unique codes to them. The receiver has the unique key to identify the
individual calls.

GSM

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications. GSM is one of the
most widely used digital wireless telephony system. It was developed in Europe in
1980s and is now international standard in Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. Any

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GSM handset with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card can be used in any
country that uses this standard. Every SIM card has a unique identification
number. It has memory to store applications and data like phone numbers,
processor to carry out its functions and software to send and receive messages

GSM technology uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) to support up to

eight calls simultaneously. It also uses encryption to make the data more secure.

The frequencies used by the international standard is 900 MHz to 1800 MHz
However, GSM phones used in the US use 1900 MHz frequency and hence are not
compatible with the international system.

CDMA

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access. It was first used by the British
military during World War II. After the war its use spread to civilian areas due to
high service quality. As each user gets the entire spectrum all the time, voice
quality is very high. Also, it is automatically encrypted and hence provides high
security against signal interception and eavesdropping.

WLL

WLL stands for Wireless in Local Loop. It is a wireless local telephone service that
can be provided in homes or offices. The subscribers connect to their local
exchange instead of the central exchange wirelessly. Using wireless link eliminates
last mile or first mile construction of network connection, thereby reducing cost
and set up time. As data is transferred over very short range, it is more secure
than wired networks.

WLL system consists of user handsets and a base station. The base station is
connected to the central exchange as well as an antenna. The antenna transmits
to and receives calls from users through terrestrial microwave links. Each base
station can support multiple handsets depending on its capacity.

GPRS

GPRS stands for General Packet Radio Services. It is a packet based wireless
communication technology that charges users based on the volume of data they

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send rather than the time duration for which they are using the service. This is
possible because GPRS sends data over the network in packets and its throughput
depends on network traffic. As traffic increases, service quality may go down due
to congestion, hence it is logical to charge the users as per data volume
transmitted.

GPRS is the mobile communication protocol used by second (2G) and third
generation (3G) of mobile telephony. It pledges a speed of 56 kbps to 114 kbps,
however the actual speed may vary depending on network load.

Communication Satellites

A communication satellite is an artificial satellite that acts as a large repeater in

the sky. It receives signals from the source transmitter, amplifies using
transponders, and relays them to the receiver. Thus, it creates a communication
channel between locations of the earth that would not have been able to
communicate due to long distance or obstruction by earth’s curvature.

Communication satellites may be owned by government or private organizations.

Presently, there are more than 2000 communication satellites in the sky. Some of
its uses are −

 Internet
 Military operations
 Television
 Telephone
 Radio

Communication satellites are broadly categorized into three types depending

upon the orbit in which they are placed.

 Geostationary Satellite (GEO) − They are at 36,000 km from the earth’s

surface. They have same orbital period as earth’s rotation. So they appear
to be still in the sky. At least 3 GEOs are needed for global coverage.
 Medium Earth Orbit Satellite (MEO) − They are placed between the two
Van Allen belts, at a distance between 2,000 km to 36,000 km from the
earth’s surface. At least 10 MEOs are needed for global coverage.

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 Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEO) − They are situated below the Lower Van
Allen belt. Their orbital altitude is 160 km to 2000 km. For global coverage,
as high as 50 LEOs are required.

Principles of Satellite Communications

A satellite is a body that moves around another body in a mathematically

predictable path called an Orbit. A communication satellite is nothing but a
microwave repeater station in space that is helpful in telecommunications, radio,
and television along with internet applications.

A repeater is a circuit which increases the strength of the signal it receives and
retransmits it. But here this repeater works as a transponder, which changes the
frequency band of the transmitted signal, from the received one.

The frequency with which the signal is sent into the space is called Uplink
frequency, while the frequency with which it is sent by the transponder
is Downlink frequency.

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The following figure illustrates this concept clearly.

Now, a look at the advantages, disadvantages and applications of satellite

communications.

Satellite Communication − Advantages

There are many Advantages of satellite communications such as −

 Flexibility
 Ease in installing new circuits
 Distances are easily covered and cost doesn’t matter
 Broadcasting possibilities
 Each and every corner of earth is covered
 User can control the network

Satellite Communication − Disadvantages

Satellite communication has the following drawbacks −

 The initial costs such as segment and launch costs are too high.
 Congestion of frequencies

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 Interference and propagation

Satellite Communication − Applications

Satellite communication finds its applications in the following areas −

 In Radio broadcasting.
 In TV broadcasting such as DTH.
 In Internet applications such as providing Internet connection for data
transfer, GPS applications, Internet surfing, etc.
 For voice communications.
 For research and development sector, in many areas.
 In military applications and navigations.

The orientation of the satellite in its orbit depends upon the three laws called as
Kepler’s laws.

Kepler’s Laws

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) the astronomical scientist, gave 3 revolutionary

laws, regarding the motion of satellites. The path followed by a satellite around its
primary (the earth) is an ellipse. Ellipse has two foci - F1 and F2, the earth being
one of them.

If the distance from the center of the object to a point on its elliptical path is
considered, then the farthest point of an ellipse from the center is called
as apogee and the shortest point of an ellipse from the center is called as perigee.

Kepler’s 1st Law

Kepler’s 1st law states that, “every planet revolves around the sun in an elliptical
orbit, with sun as one of its foci.” As such, a satellite moves in an elliptical path
with earth as one of its foci.

The semi major axis of the ellipse is denoted as ‘a’ and semi minor axis is denoted
as b. Therefore, the eccentricity e of this system can be written as −

$$e = \frac{\sqrt{a^{2}-b^{2}}}{a}$$

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 Eccentricity (e) − It is the parameter which defines the difference in the

shape of the ellipse rather than that of a circle.
 Semi-major axis (a) − It is the longest diameter drawn joining the two foci
along the center, which touches both the apogees (farthest points of an
ellipse from the center).
 Semi-minor axis (b) − It is the shortest diameter drawn through the center
which touches both the perigees (shortest points of an ellipse from the
center).

These are well described in the following figure.

For an elliptical path, it is always desirable that the eccentricity should lie in
between 0 and 1, i.e. 0 < e < 1 because if e becomes zero, the path will be no
more in elliptical shape rather it will be converted into a circular path.

Kepler’s 2nd Law

Kepler’s 2nd law states that, “For equal intervals of time, the area covered by the
satellite is equal with respect to the center of the earth.”

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It can be understood by taking a look at the following figure.

Suppose that the satellite covers p1 and p2 distances, in the same time interval,
then the areas B1 and B2 covered in both instances respectively, are equal.

Kepler’s 3rd Law

Kepler’s 3rd law states that, “The square of the periodic time of the orbit is
proportional to the cube of the mean distance between the two bodies.”

This can be written mathematically as

$$T^{2}\:\alpha\:\:a^{3}$$

Which implies

$$T^{2} = \frac{4\pi ^{2}}{GM}a^{3}$$

Where $\frac{4\pi ^{2}}{GM}$ is the proportionality constant (according to

Newtonian Mechanics)

$$T^{2} = \frac{4\pi ^{2}}{\mu}a^{3} $$

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Where μ = the earth’s geocentric gravitational constant, i.e. Μ = 3.986005 ×

1014 m3/sec2

$$1 = \left ( \frac{2\pi}{T} \right )^{2}\frac{a^{3}}{\mu}$$

$$1 = n^{2}\frac{a^{3}}{\mu}\:\:\:\Rightarrow \:\:\:a^{3} = \frac{\mu}{n^{2}}$$

Where n = the mean motion of the satellite in radians per second

The orbital functioning of satellites is calculated with the help of these Kepler’s
laws.

Along with these, there is an important thing which has to be noted. A satellite,
when it revolves around the earth, undergoes a pulling force from the earth
which is the gravitational force. Also, it experiences some pulling force from the
sun and the moon. Hence, there are two forces acting on it. They are −

 Centripetal force − The force that tends to draw an object moving in a

trajectory path, towards itself is called as centripetal force.
 Centrifugal force − The force that tends to push an object moving in a
trajectory path, away from its position is called as centrifugal force.

So, a satellite has to balance these two forces to keep itself in its orbit.

Earth Orbits

A satellite when launched into space, needs to be placed in a certain orbit to

provide a particular way for its revolution, so as to maintain accessibility and
serve its purpose whether scientific, military, or commercial. Such orbits which
are assigned to satellites, with respect to earth are called as Earth Orbits. The
satellites in these orbits are Earth Orbit Satellites.

The important kinds of Earth Orbits are −

 Geo Synchronous Earth Orbit

 Medium Earth Orbit
 Low Earth Orbit

Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Satellites

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A Geo-Synchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite is one which is placed at an

altitude of 22,300 miles above the Earth. This orbit is synchronized with a side
real day (i.e., 23hours 56minutes). This orbit can have inclination and
eccentricity. It may not be circular. This orbit can be tilted at the poles of the
earth. But it appears stationary when observed from the Earth.

The same geo-synchronous orbit, if it is circular and in the plane of equator, it is

called as geo-stationary orbit. These satellites are placed at 35,900kms (same as
geosynchronous) above the Earth’s Equator and they keep on rotating with
respect to earth’s direction (west to east). These satellites are considered
stationary with respect to earth and hence the name implies.

Geo-Stationary Earth Orbit Satellites are used for weather forecasting, satellite
TV, satellite radio and other types of global communications.

The following figure shows the difference between Geo-synchronous and Geo-
stationary orbits. The axis of rotation indicates the movement of Earth.

Note − Every geo-stationary orbit is a geo-synchronous orbit. But every geo-

synchronous orbit is NOT a Geo-stationary orbit.

Medium Earth Orbit Satellites

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Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite networks will orbit at distances of about
8000 miles from the earth's surface. Signals transmitted from a MEO satellite
travel a shorter distance. This translates to improved signal strength at the
receiving end. This shows that smaller, more lightweight receiving terminals can
be used at the receiving end.

Since the signal is travelling a shorter distance to and from the satellite, there is
less transmission delay. Transmission delay can be defined as the time it takes for
a signal to travel up to a satellite and back down to a receiving station.

For real-time communications, the shorter the transmission delay, the better will
be the communication system. As an example, if a GEO satellite requires 0.25
seconds for a round trip, then MEO satellite requires less than 0.1 seconds to
complete the same trip. MEOs operates in the frequency range of 2 GHz and
above.

Low Earth Orbit Satellites

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are mainly classified into three categories
namely, little LEOs, big LEOs, and Mega-LEOs. LEOs will orbit at a distance of 500
to 1000 miles above the earth's surface.

This relatively short distance reduces transmission delay to only 0.05 seconds.
This further reduces the need for sensitive and bulky receiving equipment. Little
LEOs will operate in the 800 MHz (0.8 GHz) range. Big LEOs will operate in the 2
GHz or above range, and Mega-LEOs operates in the 20-30 GHz range.

The higher frequencies associated with Mega-LEOs translates into more

information carrying capacity and yields to the capability of real-time, low delay
video transmission scheme.

The following figure depicts the paths of LEO, MEO, and GEO.

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Wireless Networks

Computer networks that are not connected by cables are called wireless
networks. They generally use radio waves for communication between the
network nodes. They allow devices to be connected to the network while roaming
around within the network coverage.

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Types of Wireless Networks

 Wireless LANs − Connects two or more network devices using wireless

distribution techniques.
 Wireless MANs − Connects two or more wireless LANs spreading over a
metropolitan area.
 Wireless WANs − Connects large areas comprising LANs, MANs and
personal networks.

Advantages of Wireless Networks

 It provides clutter-free desks due to the absence of wires and cables.

 It increases the mobility of network devices connected to the system since
the devices need not be connected to each other.
 Accessing network devices from any location within the network coverage
or Wi-Fi hotspot becomes convenient since laying out cables is not needed.
 Installation and setup of wireless networks are easier.
 New devices can be easily connected to the existing setup since they
needn’t be wired to the present equipment. Also, the number of
equipment that can be added or removed to the system can vary
considerably since they are not limited by the cable capacity. This makes
wireless networks very scalable.
 Wireless networks require very limited or no wires. Thus, it reduces the
equipment and setup costs.

Examples of wireless networks

 Mobile phone networks

 Wireless sensor networks
 Satellite communication networks
 Terrestrial microwave networks

Topologies

The way in which devices are interconnected to form a network is called network
topology. Some of the factors that affect choice of topology for a network are −

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 Cost − Installation cost is a very important factor in overall cost of setting

up an infrastructure. So cable lengths, distance between nodes, location of
servers, etc. have to be considered when designing a network.
 Flexibility − Topology of a network should be flexible enough to allow
reconfiguration of office set up, addition of new nodes and relocation of
existing nodes.
 Reliability − Network should be designed in such a way that it has minimum
down time. Failure of one node or a segment of cabling should not render
the whole network useless.
 Scalability − Network topology should be scalable, i.e. it can accommodate
load of new devices and nodes without perceptible drop in performance.
 Ease of installation − Network should be easy to install in terms of
hardware, software and technical personnel requirements.
 Ease of maintenance − Troubleshooting and maintenance of network
should be easy.

Bus Topology

Data network with bus topology has a linear transmission cable, usually coaxial,
to which many network devices and workstations are attached along the
length. Server is at one end of the bus. When a workstation has to send data, it
transmits packets with destination address in its header along the bus.

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The data travels in both the directions along the bus. When the destination
terminal sees the data, it copies it to the local disk.

Advantages of Bus Topology

These are the advantages of using bus topology −

 Easy to install and maintain

 Can be extended easily
 Very reliable because of single transmission line

Disadvantages of Bus Topology

These are some disadvantages of using bus topology −

 Troubleshooting is difficult as there is no single point of control

 One faulty node can bring the whole network down
 Dumb terminals cannot be connected to the bus

Ring Topology

In ring topology each terminal is connected to exactly two nodes, giving the
network a circular shape. Data travels in only one pre-determined direction.

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When a terminal has to send data, it transmits it to the neighboring node which
transmits it to the next one. Before further transmission data may be amplified. In
this way, data raverses the network and reaches the destination node, which
removes it from the network. If the data reaches the sender, it removes the data
and resends it later.

Advantages of Ring Topology

These are the advantages of using ring topology −

 Small cable segments are needed to connect two nodes

 Ideal for optical fibres as data travels in only one direction
 Very high transmission speeds possible

Disadvantages of Ring Topology

These are some the disadvantages of using ring topology −

 Failure of single node brings down the whole network

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 Troubleshooting is difficult as many nodes may have to be inspected before

faulty one is identified
 Difficult to remove one or more nodes while keeping the rest of the
network intact

Star Topology

In star topology, server is connected to each node individually. Server is also

called the central node. Any exchange of data between two nodes must take
place through the server. It is the most popular topology for information and
voice networks as central node can process data received from source node
before sending it to the destination node.

Advantages of Star Topology

These are the advantages of using star topology −

 Failure of one node does not affect the network

 Troubleshooting is easy as faulty node can be detected from central node
immediately

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 Simple access protocols required as one of the communicating nodes is

always the central node

Disadvantages of Star Topology

These are the disadvantages of using star topology −

 Long cables may be required to connect each node to the server

 Failure of central node brings down the whole network

Tree Topology

Tree topology has a group of star networks connected to a linear bus backbone
cable. It incorporates features of both star and bus topologies. Tree topology is
also called hierarchical topology.

Advantages of Tree Topology

These are some of the advantages of using tree topology −

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 Existing network can be easily expanded

 Point-to-point wiring for individual segments means easier installation and
maintenance
 Well suited for temporary networks

Disadvantages of Tree Topology

These are some of the disadvantages of using tree topology −

 Technical expertise required to configure and wire tree topology

 Failure of backbone cable brings down entire network
 Insecure network
 Maintenance difficult for large networks

Ad Hoc Networks

An ad hoc network is one that is spontaneously formed when devices connect and
communicate with each other. The term ad hoc is a Latin word that literally
means "for this," implying improvised or impromptu.

Ad hoc networks are mostly wireless local area networks (LANs). The devices
communicate with each other directly instead of relying on a base station or
access points as in wireless LANs for data transfer co-ordination. Each device
participates in routing activity, by determining the route using the routing
algorithm and forwarding data to other devices via this route.

o A MANET consists of a number of mobile devices that come together to

form a network as needed, without any support from any existing internet
infrastructure or any other kind of fixed stations.
o A MANET can be defined as an autonomous system of nodes or MSs(also
serving as routers) connected by wireless links, the union of which forms a
communication network modeled in the form of an arbitrary
communication graph.
o This is in contrast to the well-known single hop cellular network model that
supports the needs of wireless communication between two mobile nodes
relies on the wired backbone and fixed base stations.
o In a MANET, no such infrastructure exists and network topology may be
changed dynamically in an unpredictable manner since nodes are free to

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move and each node has limiting transmitting power, restricting access to
the node only in the neighboring range.
o MANETs are basically peer-to-peer, multi-hop wireless networks in which
information packets are transmitted in a store and forward manner from a
source to an arbitrary destination, via intermediate nodes as given in the
figure:

o As nodes move, the connectivity may change based on relative locations of

other nodes. The resulting change in the network topology known at the
local level must be passed on to other nodes so that old topology
information can be updated.
o For example, as MS2 in the figure changes its point of attachment from
MS3 to MS4, other nodes that are part of the network should use this new
route to forward packets to MS2. In the figure, we assume that it is not
possible to have all nodes within each other's radio range. In case all nodes
are closed by within each other's radio range, there are no routing issues to
be addressed.
o In figures raise another issue, that of symmetric and asymmetric
(bidirectional) and asymmetric (unidirectional) links. Consider symmetric
links with associative radio range; for example, if MS1 is within radio range
of MS3, then MS3 is also within radio range of MS1. The communication
links are symmetric. This assumption is not always valid because of
differences in transmitting power levels and the terrain. Routing in

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asymmetric networks is relatively hard task. In certain cases, it is possible to

find routes that exclude asymmetric links, since it is cumbersome to find
the return path. The issue of efficient is one of the several challenges
encountered in a MANET.
o The other issue is varying the mobility patterns of different nodes. Some
other nodes are highly mobile, while others are primarily stationary. It is
difficult to predict a node's movement and direction of movement and
numerous studies have been performed to evaluate their performance
using different simulators.

Characteristics of MANET

Some characteristics of adhoc network are as follows:

o Dynamic topologies: nodes are free to move arbitrarily; thus the network
topology may be changed randomly and unpredictably and primarily
consists of bidirectional links. In some cases where the transmission power
of two nodes is different, a unidirectional link may exist.
o Bandwidth-constrained and variable capacity links: wireless links continue
to have significantly lower capacity than infrastructure networks.
o Energy-constrained operation: some or all of the MSs in a MANET may rely
on batteries or other exhaustible means for their energy. For these nodes
or devices, the most important system design optimization criteria may be
energy conservation.
o Limited physical security: MANETs are generally more prone to physical
security threats than wire line networks. The increased possibility of
eavesdropping, spoofing, and denial of services (DoS) attacks should be
considered carefully. To reduce security threats, many existing link security
techniques are often applied within wireless networks.

Applications of MANET

Some specific applications of ad hoc networks include industrial and commercial

applications involving cooperative mobile data exchange. There are many existing
and future military networking requirements for robust, IP-compliant data
services within mobile wireless communication networks, with many of these
networks consist of highly dynamic autonomous topology segments. Advanced

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features of Mobile ad hoc networks, including data rates compatible with

multimedia applications global roaming capability, and coordination with other
network structures are enabling new applications.

o Defense applications: Many defense applications require on the fly

communications set-up, and ad hoc/sensor networks are excellent
candidates for use in battlefield management.
o Crisis management applications: These arise, for example, as a result of
natural disasters in which the entire communication infrastructure is in
disarray. Restoring communications quickly is essential.
o Telemedicine: The paramedic assisting the victim of a traffic accident in a
remote location must access medical records (e.g. X-rays) and may need
video conference assistance from a surgeon for an emergency intervention.
In fact, the paramedic may need to instantaneously relay back to the
hospital the victim's X-rays and other diagnostic tests from the site of the
accident.
o Tele-geoprocessing application: The combination of GPS, GIS (Geographical
Information Systems), and high-capacity wireless mobile systems enables a
new type of application referred to as tele- geo processing.
o Virtual Navigation: A remote database contains the graphical
representation of building, streets, and physical characteristics of a large
metropolis. They may also "virtually" see the internal layout of buildings,
including an emergency rescue plan, or find possible points of interest.
o Education via the internet: Educational opportunities available on the
internet or remote areas because of the economic infeasibility of providing
expensive last-mile wire line internet access in these areas to all
subscribers.
o Vehicular area network: This a growing and very useful application of
adhoc network in providing emergency services and other information. This
is equally effective in both urban and rural setup. The basic and exchange
necessary data that is beneficial in a given situation.

Classifications of Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks can be classified into several types depending upon the nature
of their applications. The most prominent ad hoc networks that are commonly
incorporated are illustrated in the diagram below −

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Wireless Transmission

In wireless transmission media, data is transmitted in the form of electromagnetic

waves that do not require any physical conductors for transmission. The waves
are broadcast through free space and any device who has permission to connect
can receive them.

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The three ways in which unguided signals travel are −

Ground Propagation:

It is a method of propagation, in which radio waves travel through the lowest

layers of the atmosphere along the earth’s surface, following the earth’s
curvature. The frequency of these signals is low (≤ 2MHz), and the distance they
travel is directly proportional to the power in signal.

Sky Propagation:

In sky propagation, high frequency radio waves (2–30 MHz) are reflected back
from the ionosphere towards the earth’s surface. They can be used to transmit
signals over a large geographical area since their distance is not bounded by the
earth’s curvature.

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Line – of – Sight Propagation

In line – of – sight propagation, very high frequency waves ( > 30 MHz ) travel at
straight lines from the source antenna (transmitter) to the destination antenna
(receiver). These waves are easily disrupted by present of objects in their path. So
the antennas are placed tall enough above obstructions. They are unidirectional
facing each other.

Wireless LANs

Wireless LANs (WLANs) are wireless computer networks that use high-frequency
radio waves instead of cables for connecting the devices within a limited area
forming LAN (Local Area Network). Users connected by wireless LANs can move
around within this limited area such as home, school, campus, office building,
railway platform, etc.

Most WLANs are based upon the standard IEEE 802.11 standard or WiFi.

Components of WLANs

The components of WLAN architecture as laid down in IEEE 802.11 are −

 Stations (STA) − Stations comprises of all devices and equipment that are
connected to the wireless LAN. Each station has a wireless network
interface controller. A station can be of two types −

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o Wireless Access Point (WAP or AP)

o Client
 Basic Service Set (BSS) − A basic service set is a group of stations
communicating at the physical layer level. BSS can be of two categories −
o Infrastructure BSS
o Independent BSS
 Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.
 Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.

Types of WLANS

WLANs, as standardized by IEEE 802.11, operates in two basic modes,

infrastructure, and ad hoc mode.

 Infrastructure Mode − Mobile devices or clients connect to an access point

(AP) that in turn connects via a bridge to the LAN or Internet. The client
transmits frames to other clients via the AP.
 Ad Hoc Mode − Clients transmit frames directly to each other in a peer-to-
peer fashion.

Advantages of WLANs

 They provide clutter-free homes, offices and other networked places.

 The LANs are scalable in nature, i.e. devices may be added or removed from
the network at greater ease than wired LANs.

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 The system is portable within the network coverage. Access to the network
is not bounded by the length of the cables.
 Installation and setup are much easier than wired counterparts.
 The equipment and setup costs are reduced.

Disadvantages of WLANs

 Since radio waves are used for communications, the signals are noisier with
more interference from nearby systems.
 Greater care is needed for encrypting information. Also, they are more
prone to errors. So, they require greater bandwidth than the wired LANs.
 WLANs are slower than wired LANs.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

Global Positioning Systems, widely known as GPSs, have a great importance since
the days of World War II.

Although the initial focus was mainly on military targeting, fleet management,
and navigation, commercial usage began finding relevance as the advantages of
radiolocation were extended to (but not limited to) tracking down stolen vehicles
and guiding civilians to the nearest hospital, gas station, hotel, and so on.

A GPS system consists of a network of 24 orbiting satellites,

called NAVSTAR (Navigation System with Time and Ranging), and placed in space
in six different orbital paths with four satellites in each orbital plane and covering
the entire earth under their signal beams.

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The orbital period of these satellites is twelve hours.

The satellite signals can be received anywhere and at any time in the world.

The spacing of the satellites is arranged such that a minimum of five satellites are
in view from every point on the globe.

The first GPS satellite was launched in February 1978.

Each satellite is expected to last approx 7.5 years, and replacements are
constantly being built and launched into orbit.

Each satellite is placed at an altitude of about 10,900 nautical miles and weights
about 862 kg.

The satellites extend to about 5.2m (17ft) in space including the solar panels. Each
satellite transmits on three frequencies.

The GPS is based on well known concept called the triangulation technique.

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Consider the GPS receiver MS to be placed on an imaginary sphere. The radius of

imaginary sphere is equal to the distance between satellite "A" and the receiver
on the ground (with the satellite "A" as the center of the sphere).

Now the GPS receiver MS is also a point on another imaginary sphere with a
second satellite "B" at its center. We can say that the GPS receiver is somewhere
on the circle formed by the intersection of these two spheres.

Then, with a measurement of distance from a third satellite "C", the position of
the receiver is narrowed down to just two points on the circle, one of which is
imaginary and is eliminated from the calculations. As a result, the distance
measured from three satellites suffices to determine the position of the GPS
receiver on earth.

History of the Global Positioning System (GPS)

o 1957 - Soviet Union launched Sputnik I satellite.

o 1960s - U.S. Navy tracked U.S. submarines with satellite navigation.
o 1978 - NAVSTAR Block I GPS satellite was launched.

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o 1983 - U.S. announced that it will make GPS available for civilian use after
Korean Air flight 007 shot down.
o 1989 - Magellan introduced NAV 1000, the first hand-held GPS device. First
Block II satellite is launched.
o 1993 - Constellation of 24 satellite system became operational.
o 1995 - Full Operational Capability (FOC) declared.
o 2000 - Selective Availability discontinued by the U.S. Government.
o 2004 - Qualcomm successfully completed test of live assisted GPS on a
mobile phone.
o 2008 - Block II satellite launched.
o 2016 - GPS IIF satellite launched.

Beneficiaries of GPS

o At the start, more than 1000 portable commercial GPS receivers were
purchased for military use.
o They were carried by soldiers and attached to vehicles, helicopters, and
aircraft instrument panels.
o GPS receivers were used in several aircrafts, including B-2 bombers and F-
16 fighters etc. Navy ships used them for rendezvous, minesweeping, and
aircraft operations.
o GPS has become important for all military operations and weapons
systems. In additions, GPS benefits nonmilitary operations.
o GPS is used on satellites to obtain highly accurate orbit data and to control
spacecraft orientation.
o GPS has a various applications on land, at sea, and in the air.
o GPS can be used everywhere except indoors and places where a GPS signal
cannot be received because of natural or man-made obstructions.
o Both military and commercial aircraft use GPS for navigation purposes. It is
also used by commercial fisherman and boaters to aid in navigation.
o The precision timing capability provided by GPS is used by the scientific
community for research purposes. The GPS enables survey units to help
surveyors to set up their survey sites fairly quickly.
o GPS is also used for noncommercial purposes by car racers, hikers, hunters,
mountain bikers, and cross-country skiers.

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o GPS also helps in providing emergency roadside assistance, by allowing an

accident victim to transmit his or her position to the nearest response
center at the push of a button.
o GPS is also helping to save lives. Many police, fire, and emergency medical
service units are using GPS receivers to determine the location of a police
car, a fire truck, or an ambulance nearest to an emergency, enabling the
quickest possible response in death or life situations.
o Automobile manufacturers are offering moving map displays, guided by
GPS receivers as an option on new vehicles.

Limitations of GPS

o There are several factors that introduce error into GPS position calculations
and prevent us from achieving the best possible accuracy.
o A major source of error in GPS arises from the fact that the speed of the
radio signals is constant only in a vacuum which means that distance
measurements may vary as the values of the speed of signal vary in the
atmosphere.
o The atmosphere, as we know, is composed of the ionosphere and the
troposphere. The presence of the troposphere essentially composed of
water vapor) is known to cause errors due to variation of temperature and
pressure, and the particles in the ionosphere are known to cause significant
measurement errors (as would be the case with bad clocks!).

Factors affecting the accuracy of GPS position are given below:

Error Factor Accuracy level (in meters)

Standard GPS Differential GPS

(DGPS)

Atmospheric conditions (troposphere) 0.5-0.7 0.2

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Atmospheric conditions (ionosphere) 5-7 0.4

Multipath fading and shadowing effects 0.6-1.2 0.6

Receiver Noise 0.3-1.5 0.3

Selective availability 24-30 0

Atomic clock errors 1.5 0

Ephemeris errors 2.5 0

GPRS

The full form of GPRS is General Packet Radio Service. The GPRS is a non-voice
high-speed packet switching system developed for GSM networks. GPRS is a
packet-aligned, wireless communication service that transmits a mobile signal on
3 G and 2 G cellular transmission networks.

GPRS works based on the technique of modulation, also called GMSK (Gaussian
Minimum Shift Keying). To allow GPRS to be deployed on a TDMA (Time Division
Multiple Access) or GSM (Global System For Mobile Communications) or network,
we must have two main modules that are named as

 GGSN (Gateway GPRS Service Node)

 SGSN (Serving GPRS Service Node)

GPRS can be used to communicate using internet protocols that support a wide
range of companies as well as industrial applications.

History of GPRS

 GPRS was introduced in the year 2000 as a packet-switched data service

incorporated into the channel switched cellular radio network GSM. GPRS

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extends the reach of the Fixed Internet by connecting mobile terminals all
over the world.
 The CELLPAC protocol established in 1991-1993 was the primary trigger for
beginning in 1993 configuration of standard GPRS by ETSI SMG. In
particular, the CELLPAC Voice & Data functions introduced in a 1993 ETSI
Workshop dedication anticipate what later became known as GPRS roots.
 The workshop input is cited in 22 GPRS-related US-Patents. Successor
systems to GSM / GPRS such as W-CDMA (UMTS) and LTE, as implemented
by CELLPAC, depend on critical GPRS operations for mobile Internet access.
 As per research on the history of GPRS growth, the inventors of GPRS are
Bernhard Walke and his student Peter Decker, the first to make the system
access to mobile internet globally.

Requirements to use GPRS

Due to the more advanced infrastructure than traditional 2 G wireless technology,

GPRS is considered as 2.5 G technology, but it does not satisfy the need for 3 G
developments.

 A service that includes GPRS modem.

 A network of GSM / GPRS.
 A GPRS-aided SIM card.
 A remote location that has internet connectivity or a GPRS network.

Benefits of GPRS

 GPRS gives higher speed of data transfer compared with fixed

telecommunication networks. Its prime speed is 171.2 kbps, almost three
times the speed of set-telecommunications.
 It provides immediate fast communication and quick transfer of
information.
 GPRS is highly cost efficient.
 GPRS applications are unique and of high standard. It offers web apps over
mobile phones and also makes web surfing, IM messages, e-commerce and
so on simpler.
 It allows people to connect to the web even when other service providers,
including 3 G or HSDPA, are not accessible.

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SMS: Short Message Service

SMS is an acronym for Short Message Service. It is a communication protocol that

allows to exchange text messages between mobile devices.

You can send SMS by mobile phones, smart phones, computer systems with web,
handheld devices etc. All telecommunication companies like Idea, Vodafone,
Airtel, Aircel, BSNL etc. provide the facility of sending SMS.

SMS is the most widely used data application with an estimated 3.5 billion active
users. It was originally designed as a part of GSM, but is now available on the
CDMA phones also. The maximum length of an individual message goes up to 160
alpha-numeric 7 bits characters. (In the case of 5-bit mode, it supports 224
characters).

Initial concept of SMS

Initial concept of SMS came in exist in early 1980s. It was developed in the
Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard
Ghillebiert. Then, the CEPT group GSM introduced a plan to include the exchange
of text messages between mobile stations via message handling systems in use at
that time.

Advantages

 It is a very reliable and attested platform for sending important information

which ensures a guaranteed delivery of the information.
 It is a more discrete form of sending information in comparison to a phone
call.
 It is provided automatically to all mobile devices and there is no
requirement for an internet connection.
 The conversations among people are automatically stored until deleted by
the people themselves.
 It does not require any app to be downloaded as it is already provided in all
the mobile devices.

Disadvantages

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 It has a limited length as it provides only 160 characters per text message.
 In order to send a text message one has to pay the cost for sending it as
SMS facility is not free of cost.
 There is no possibility to unsend a message once sent.

Cloud Computing

The popular trend in today's technology driven world is ‘Cloud Computing’. Cloud
computing can be referred to as the storing and accessing of data over the
internet rather than your computer's hard drive. This means you don't access the
data from either your computer's hard drive or over a dedicated computer
network (home or office network). Cloud computing means data is stored at a
remote place and is synchronized with other web information.

One prominent example of cloud computing is Office 365 which allows users to
store, access, edit their MS Office documents online (in browser) without
installing the actual program on their device.

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Architecture of Cloud Computing

The architecture of cloud computing comprises of the following components −

 Front-end device
 Back-end platform
 Cloud-based delivery
 Network

Front-end Devices − These are basically the devices that are used by clients to
access the data or program using the browser or special applications.

Back-end Platform − There are various computers, servers, virtual machines, etc.
that combine to become a back-end platform.

Types of Cloud

The storage options on cloud is in 3 forms −

 Public
 Private
 Hybrid

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Public Cloud − A service provider makes the clouds available to the general public
which is termed as a public cloud. These clouds are accessed through internet by
users. These are open to public and their infrastructure is owned and operated by
service providers as in case of Google and Microsoft.

Private Cloud − These clouds are dedicated to a particular organization. That

particular organization can use the cloud for storing the company's data, hosting
business application, etc. The data stored on private cloud can't be shared with
other organizations. The cloud is managed either by the organization itself or by
the third party.

Hybrid Cloud − When two or more clouds are bound together to offer the
advantage of both public and private clouds, they are termed as Hybrid Cloud.
Organizations can use private clouds for sensitive application, while public clouds
for non-sensitive applications. The hybrid clouds provide flexible, scalable and
cost-effective solutions to the organizations.

Benefits of Cloud

There are many benefits of clouds. Some of them are listed below.

 Cloud service offers scalability. Allocation and de-allocation of resources is

dynamically as per demand.
 It saves on cost by reducing capital infrastructure.
 It allows the user to access the application independent of their location
and hardware configuration.
 It simplifies the network and lets the client access the application without
buying license for individual machine.
 Storing data on clouds is more reliable as it is not lost easily.

SPI

Next comes how cloud services are categorized. S stand for Software, P stands for
Platform and I for Infrastructure in SPI. SaaS is Software as a service; PaaS is
Platform as a service and IaaS is Infrastructure as a Service.

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Following are the live examples of these models.

 SAAS Model − E-mail (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)

 PAAS Model − Microsoft Azure
 IAAS Model − Amazon S3

Internet Of Things(IoT)

Internet of Things(IoT) is a network of physical objects or people called "things"

that are embedded with software, electronics, network, and sensors that allows
these objects to collect and exchange data. The goal of IoT is to extend to internet
connectivity from standard devices like computer, mobile, tablet to relatively
dumb devices like a toaster.

IoT makes virtually everything "smart," by improving aspects of our life with the
power of data collection, AI algorithm, and networks. The thing in IoT can also be
a person with a diabetes monitor implant, an animal with tracking devices, etc.

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History of IOT

 1970- The actual idea of connected devices was proposed

 1990- John Romkey created a toaster which could be turned on/off over
the Internet
 1995- Siemens introduced the first cellular module built for M2M
 1999- The term "Internet of Things" was used by Kevin Ashton during his
work at P&G which became widely accepted
 2004 - The term was mentioned in famous publications like the Guardian,
Boston Globe, and Scientific American
 2005-UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) published its first
report on this topic.
 2008- The Internet of Things was born
 2011- Gartner, the market research company, include "The Internet of
Things" technology in their research

How IOT works?

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The entire IOT process starts with the devices themselves like smartphones,
smartwatches, electronic appliances like TV, Washing Machine which helps you to
communicate with the IOT platform.

Here, are four fundamental components of an IoT system:

1) Sensors/Devices: Sensors or devices are a key component that helps you to

collect live data from the surrounding environment. All this data may have various
levels of complexities. It could be a simple temperature monitoring sensor, or it
may be in the form of the video feed.

A device may have various types of sensors which performs multiple

tasks apart from sensing. Example, A mobile phone is a device which has multiple
sensors like GPS, camera but your smartphone is not able to sense these things.

2) Connectivity: All the collected data is sent to a cloud infrastructure. The

sensors should be connected to the cloud using various mediums of
communications. These communication mediums include mobile or satellite
networks, Bluetooth, WI-FI, WAN, etc.

3) Data Processing: Once that data is collected, and it gets to the cloud, the
software performs processing on the gathered data. This process can be just
checking the temperature, reading on devices like AC or heaters. However, it can
sometimes also be very complex like identifying objects, using computer vision on
video.

4)User Interface: The information needs to be available to the end-user in some

way which can be achieved by triggering alarms on their phones or sending them
notification through email or text message. The user sometimes might need an
interface which actively checks their IOT system. For example, the user has a
camera installed in his home. He wants to access video recording and all the feeds
with the help of a web server.

However, it's not always one-way communication. Depending on the IoT

application and complexity of the system, the user may also be able to perform an
action which may create cascading effects.

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For example, if a user detects any changes in the temperature of the refrigerator,
with the help of IOT technology the user should able to adjust the temperature
with the help of their mobile phone.

IoT Applications

IoT Applications

IoT solutions are widely used in numerous companies across industries. Some
most common IoT applications are given below:

Application type Description

Smart Thermostats Helps you to save resource on heating

bills by knowing your usage patterns.

Connected Cars IOT helps automobile companies

handle billing, parking, insurance, and
other related stuff automatically.

Activity Trackers Helps you to capture heart rate

pattern, calorie expenditure, activity

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levels, and skin temperature on your

wrist.

Smart Outlets Remotely turn any device on or off. It

also allows you to track a device's
energy level and get custom
notifications directly into your
smartphone.

Parking Sensors IOT technology helps users to identify

the real-time availability of parking
spaces on their phone.

Connect Health The concept of a connected health

care system facilitates real-time
health monitoring and patient care. It
helps in improved medical decision-
making based on patient data.

Smart City Smart city offers all types of use cases

which include traffic management to
water distribution, waste
management, etc.

Smart home Smart home encapsulates the

connectivity inside your homes. It
includes smoke detectors, home
appliances, light bulbs, windows, door
locks, etc.

Smart supply chain Helps you in real time tracking of

goods while they are on the road, or
getting suppliers to exchange
inventory information.

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Challenges of IoT

At present IoT is faced with many challenges, such as:

 Insufficient testing and updating

 Concern regarding data security and privacy
 Software complexity
 Data volumes and interpretation
 Integration with AI and automation
 Devices require a constant power supply which is difficult
 Interaction and short-range communication

Advantages of IoT

Key benefits of IoT technology are as follows:

 Technical Optimization: IoT technology helps a lot in improving

technologies and making them better. Example, with IoT, a manufacturer is
able to collect data from various car sensors. The manufacturer analyzes
them to improve its design and make them more efficient.
 Improved Data Collection: Traditional data collection has its limitations and
its design for passive use. IoT facilitates immediate action on data.
 Reduced Waste: IoT offers real-time information leading to effective
decision making & management of resources. For example, if a
manufacturer finds an issue in multiple car engines, he can track the

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manufacturing plan of those engines and solves this issue with the
manufacturing belt.
 Improved Customer Engagement: IoT allows you to improve customer
experience by detecting problems and improving the process.

Disadvantages IOT

 Security: IoT technology creates an ecosystem of connected devices.

However, during this process, the system may offer little authentication
control despite sufficient security measures.
 Privacy: The use of IOT, exposes a substantial amount of personal data, in
extreme detail, without the user's active participation. This creates lots of
privacy issues.
 Flexibility: There is a huge concern regarding the flexibility of an IoT
system. It is mainly regarding integrating with another system as there are
many diverse systems involved in the process.
 Complexity: The design of the IOT system is also quite complicated.
Moreover, it's deployment and maintenance also not very easy.
 Compliance: IOT has its own set of rules and regulations. However, because
of its complexity, the task of compliance is quite challenging.

IOT Best Practices

 Design products for reliability and security

 Use strong authentication and security protocols
 Disable non-essential services
 Ensure Internet-managed, and IoT management hubs & services are
secured
 Energy efficient algorithms should be designed for the system to be active
longer.

Cloud Computing Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software-as–a-Service (SaaS) model allows to provide software application as a

service to the end users. It refers to a software that is deployed on a host service
and is accessible via Internet. There are several SaaS applications listed below:

 Billing and invoicing system

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 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications

 Help desk applications
 Human Resource (HR) solutions

Some of the SaaS applications are not customizable such as Microsoft Office
Suite. But SaaS provides us Application Programming Interface (API), which
allows the developer to develop a customized application.

Characteristics

Here are the characteristics of SaaS service model:

 SaaS makes the software available over the Internet.

 The software applications are maintained by the vendor.
 The license to the software may be subscription based or usage based. And
it is billed on recurring basis.
 SaaS applications are cost-effective since they do not require any
maintenance at end user side.
 They are available on demand.
 They can be scaled up or down on demand.
 They are automatically upgraded and updated.
 SaaS offers shared data model. Therefore, multiple users can share single
instance of infrastructure. It is not required to hard code the functionality
for individual users.
 All users run the same version of the software.

Benefits

Using SaaS has proved to be beneficial in terms of scalability, efficiency and

performance. Some of the benefits are listed below:

 Modest software tools

 Efficient use of software licenses
 Centralized management and data
 Platform responsibilities managed by provider
 Multitenant solutions

Modest software tools

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The SaaS application deployment requires a little or no client side software

installation, which results in the following benefits:

 No requirement for complex software packages at client side

 Little or no risk of configuration at client side
 Low distribution cost

Efficient use of software licenses

The customer can have single license for multiple computers running at different
locations which reduces the licensing cost. Also, there is no requirement for
license servers because the software runs in the provider's infrastructure.

Centralized management and data

The cloud provider stores data centrally. However, the cloud providers may store
data in a decentralized manner for the sake of redundancy and reliability.

Platform responsibilities managed by providers

All platform responsibilities such as backups, system maintenance, security,

hardware refresh, power management, etc. are performed by the cloud provider.
The customer does not need to bother about them.

Multitenant solutions

Multitenant solutions allow multiple users to share single instance of different

resources in virtual isolation. Customers can customize their application without
affecting the core functionality.

Issues

There are several issues associated with SaaS, some of them are listed below:

 Browser based risks

 Network dependence
 Lack of portability between SaaS clouds

Browser based risks

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If the customer visits malicious website and browser becomes infected, the
subsequent access to SaaS application might compromise the customer's data.

To avoid such risks, the customer can use multiple browsers and dedicate a
specific browser to access SaaS applications or can use virtual desktop while
accessing the SaaS applications.

Network dependence

The SaaS application can be delivered only when network is continuously

available. Also network should be reliable but the network reliability cannot be
guaranteed either by cloud provider or by the customer.

Lack of portability between SaaS clouds

Transferring workloads from one SaaS cloud to another is not so easy because
work flow, business logics, user interfaces, support scripts can be provider
specific.

Open SaaS and SOA

Open SaaS uses those SaaS applications, which are developed using open source
programming language. These SaaS applications can run on any open source
operating system and database. Open SaaS has several benefits listed below:

 No License Required
 Low Deployment Cost
 Less Vendor Lock-in
 More portable applications
 More Robust Solution

The following diagram shows the SaaS implementation based on SOA:

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Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform-as-a-Service offers the runtime environment for applications. It also

offers development and deployment tools required to develop applications. PaaS
has a feature of point-and-click tools that enables non-developers to create web
applications.

App Engine of Google and Force.com are examples of PaaS offering vendors.
Developer may log on to these websites and use the built-in API to create web-
based applications.

But the disadvantage of using PaaS is that, the developer locks-in with a particular
vendor. For example, an application written in Python against API of Google, and
using App Engine of Google is likely to work only in that environment.

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The following diagram shows how PaaS offers an API and development tools to
the developers and how it helps the end user to access business applications.

Benefits

Following are the benefits of PaaS model:

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Lower administrative overhead

Customer need not bother about the administration because it is the

responsibility of cloud provider.

Lower total cost of ownership

Customer need not purchase expensive hardware, servers, power, and data
storage.

Scalable solutions

It is very easy to scale the resources up or down automatically, based on their

demand.

More current system software

It is the responsibility of the cloud provider to maintain software versions and

patch installations.

Issues

Like SaaS, PaaS also places significant burdens on customer's browsers to

maintain reliable and secure connections to the provider’s systems. Therefore,
PaaS shares many of the issues of SaaS. However, there are some specific issues
associated with PaaS as shown in the following diagram:

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Lack of portability between PaaS clouds

Although standard languages are used, yet the implementations of platform

services may vary. For example, file, queue, or hash table interfaces of one
platform may differ from another, making it difficult to transfer the workloads
from one platform to another.

Event based processor scheduling

The PaaS applications are event-oriented which poses resource constraints on

applications, i.e., they have to answer a request in a given interval of time.

Security engineering of PaaS applications

Since PaaS applications are dependent on network, they must explicitly use
cryptography and manage security exposures.

Characteristics

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Here are the characteristics of PaaS service model:

 PaaS offers browser based development environment. It allows the

developer to create database and edit the application code either via
Application Programming Interface or point-and-click tools.
 PaaS provides built-in security, scalability, and web service interfaces.
 PaaS provides built-in tools for defining workflow, approval processes, and
business rules.
 It is easy to integrate PaaS with other applications on the same platform.
 PaaS also provides web services interfaces that allow us to connect the
applications outside the platform.

PaaS Types

Based on the functions, PaaS can be classified into four types as shown in the
following diagram:

Stand-alone development environments

The stand-alone PaaS works as an independent entity for a specific function. It

does not include licensing or technical dependencies on specific SaaS applications.

Application delivery-only environments

The application delivery PaaS includes on-demand scaling and application

security.

Open platform as a service

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Open PaaS offers an open source software that helps a PaaS provider to run
applications.

Add-on development facilities

The add-on PaaS allows to customize the existing SaaS platform.

Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS

Iaas is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is one of the layers of the
cloud computing platform. It allows customers to outsource their IT
infrastructures such as servers, networking, processing, storage, virtual machines,
and other resources. Customers access these resources on the Internet using a
pay-as-per use model.

In traditional hosting services, IT infrastructure was rented out for a specific

period of time, with pre-determined hardware configuration. The client paid for
the configuration and time, regardless of the actual use. With the help of the IaaS
cloud computing platform layer, clients can dynamically scale the configuration to
meet changing requirements and are billed only for the services actually used.

IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for every organization to
maintain the IT infrastructure.

aaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The private cloud
implies that the infrastructure resides at the customer-premise. In the case of
public cloud, it is located at the cloud computing platform vendor's data center,
and the hybrid cloud is a combination of the two in which the customer selects
the best of both public cloud or private cloud.

IaaS provider provides the following services -

1. Compute: Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing units

and virtual main memory for the Vms that is provisioned to the end- users.
2. Storage: IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.
3. Network: Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components
such as routers, switches, and bridges for the Vms.

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4. Load balancers: It provides load balancing capability at the infrastructure

layer.

Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There are the following advantages of IaaS computing layer -

1. Shared infrastructure

IaaS allows multiple users to share the same physical infrastructure.

2. Web access to the resources

Iaas allows IT users to access resources over the internet.

3. Pay-as-per-use model

IaaS providers provide services based on the pay-as-per-use basis. The users are
required to pay for what they have used.

4. Focus on the core business

IaaS providers focus on the organization's core business rather than on IT

infrastructure.
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5. On-demand scalability

On-demand scalability is one of the biggest advantages of IaaS. Using IaaS, users
do not worry about to upgrade software and troubleshoot the issues related to
hardware components.

Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

1. Security

Security is one of the biggest issues in IaaS. Most of the IaaS providers are not
able to provide 100% security.

2. Maintenance & Upgrade

Although IaaS service providers maintain the software, but they do not upgrade
the software for some organizations.

3. Interoperability issues

It is difficult to migrate VM from one IaaS provider to the other, so the customers
might face problem related to vendor lock-in.

Some important point about IaaS cloud computing layer

IaaS cloud computing platform cannot replace the traditional hosting method, but
it provides more than that, and each resource which are used are predictable as
per the usage.

IaaS cloud computing platform may not eliminate the need for an in-house IT
department. It will be needed to monitor or control the IaaS setup. IT salary
expenditure might not reduce significantly, but other IT expenses can be reduced.

Breakdowns at the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's can bring your
business to the halt stage. Assess the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's
stability and finances. Make sure that SLAs (i.e., Service Level Agreement) provide
backups for data, hardware, network, and application failures. Image portability
and third-party support is a plus point.

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The IaaS cloud computing platform vendor can get access to your sensitive data.
So, engage with credible companies or organizations. Study their security policies
and precautions.

Top Iaas Providers who are providing IaaS cloud computing platform

IaaS Vendor Iaas Solution Details

Amazon Web Elastic, Elastic The cloud computing platform

Services Compute Cloud (EC2) pioneer, Amazon offers auto
MapReduce, Route scaling, cloud monitoring, and
53, Virtual Private load balancing features as part of
Cloud, etc. its portfolio.

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Netmagic Netmagic IaaS Cloud Netmagic runs from data centers

Solutions in Mumbai, Chennai, and
Bangalore, and a virtual data
center in the United States. Plans
are underway to extend services
to West Asia.

Rackspace Cloud servers, cloud The cloud computing platform

files, cloud sites, etc. vendor focuses primarily on
enterprise-level hosting services.

Reliance Reliance Internet RIDC supports both traditional

Communications Data Center hosting and cloud services, with
data centers in Mumbai,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, and
Chennai. The cloud services
offered by RIDC include IaaS and
SaaS.

Sify Technologies Sify IaaS Sify's cloud computing platform is

powered by HP's converged
infrastructure. The vendor offers
all three types of cloud services:
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

Tata InstaCompute InstaCompute is Tata

Communications Communications' IaaS offering.
InstaCompute data centers are
located in Hyderabad and
Singapore, with operations in
both countries.

Cloud computing is an Internet-based computing in which shared the pool of

resources are available over a broad network access, these resources can e

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provisioned or released with minimum management efforts and service provider

interaction.

There are four types of cloud:

1. Public cloud
2. Private cloud
3. Hybrid cloud
4. Community cloud

Public cloud:
Public cloud are managed by third parties which provide cloud services over the
internet to public, these services are available as pay-as-you-go billing mode.
They offer solutions for minimizing IT infrastructure costs and act as a good
option for handling peak loads on the local infrastructure. They are a goto option
for small enterprises, which are able to start their businesses without large
upfront investments by completely relying on public infrastructure for their IT
needs.
A fundamental characteristic of public clouds is multitenancy. A public cloud is
meant to serve multiple users, not a single customer. A user requires a virtual
computing environment that is separated, and most likely isolated, from other
users.

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Computing in which service provider makes all resources public over the internet.
It is connected to the public Internet. Service provider serves resources such as
virtual machines, applications, storage, etc to the general public over the internet.
It may be free of cost or with minimal pay-per-usage. It is available for public
display, Google uses the cloud to run some of its applications like google docs,
google drive or YouTube, etc.
It is the most common way of implementing cloud computing. External cloud
service provider owns, operates and delivers it over the public network.
It is best for the companies which need an infrastructure to accommodate large
number of customers and working on projects which has diverse organisation i.e.
research institution and NGO etc.

Private cloud :
Private clouds are distributed systems that work on a private infrastructure and
providing the users with dynamic provisioning of computing resources. Instead of
a pay-as-you-go model as in public clouds, there could be other schemes in that
take into account the usage of the cloud and proportionally billing the different
departments or sections of an enterprise.

Computing in which service provider makes all resources public over the internet.
It only supports connectivity over the private network. It has only authentic users
and single-occupant architecture. Google back-end data of the applications like
Google Drive, Google docs or YouTube, etc is not available to the public, these
types of data and applications run on a private cloud.
The infrastructure and services are maintained and deployed over a private
network; hardware and software are dedicated only to a private company i.e.
members of the special entity .
It is best for the companies which need an infrastructure which has high
performance, high security and privacy due to it’s best adaptability and flexibility.

The advantages of using a private cloud are:

1. Customer information protection: In private cloud security concerns are

less since customer data and other sensitive information does not flow out
of a private infrastructure.

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2. Infrastructure ensuring SLAs: Private cloud provides specific operations

such as appropriate clustering, data replication, system monitoring and
maintenance, and disaster recovery, and other uptime services.
3. Compliance with standard procedures and operations: Specific procedures
have to be put in place when deploying and executing applications
according to third-party compliance standards.This is not possible in case of
public cloud.

Below is a table of differences between Public Cloud and Private Cloud:

PUBLIC CLOUD PRIVATE CLOUD

Cloud Computing
infrastructure shared to
Cloud Computing infrastructure shared to private organisation by
public by service provider over the service provider over the
internet. It supports multiple customers internet. It supports one
i.e, enterprises. enterprise.

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PUBLIC CLOUD PRIVATE CLOUD

Multi-Tenancy i.e, Data of many

enterprise are stored in shared
environment but are isolated. Data is
shared as per rule, permission and Single Tenancy i.e, Data of
security. single enterprise is stored.

Cloud service provider provides all the

possible services and hardware as the
user-base is world. Different people and Specific hardware and
organization may need different services hardware as per need of
and hardware. Services provided must be enterprise are available in
versatile. private cloud.

It is hosted at Service
It is hosted at Service Provider site. Provider site or enterprise.

It only supports connectivity

It is connected to the public internet. over the private network.

Scalability is very high, and reliability is Scalability is limited, and

moderate. reliability is very high.

Cloud service provider manages cloud and Managed and used by single
customers use them. enterprise.

It is costlier than public

It is cheaper than private cloud. cloud.

Security matters and dependent on

service provider. It gives high class of security.

Performance is low to medium. Performance is high.

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PUBLIC CLOUD PRIVATE CLOUD

It has shared servers. It has dedicated servers.

Example : Amazon web service (AWS) and Example : Microsoft KVM, HP,
Google AppEngine etc. Red Hat & VMWare etc.

Hybrid cloud:
Hybrid cloud is a heterogeneous distributed system resulted by combining
facilities of public cloud and private cloud. For this reason they are also
called heterogeneous clouds.
A major drawback of private deployments is the inability to scale on demand and
to efficiently address peak loads. Here public clouds are needed. Hence, a hybrid
cloud takes advantages of both public and private cloud.

Community cloud:

Community clouds are distributed systems created by integrating the services of

different clouds to address the specific needs of an industry, a community, or a
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business sector.
In community cloud, the infrastructure is shared between organization which
have shared concerns or tasks. The cloud may be managed by an organization or a
third party.

Sectors that use community clouds are:

1. Media industry: Media companies are looking for quick, simple, low-cost
way for increasing efficiency of content generation.Most media productions
involve an extended ecosystem of partners. In particular, the creation of
digital content is the outcome of a collaborative process that includes
movement of large data, massive compute-intensive rendering tasks, and
complex workflow executions.
2. Healthcare industry: In healthcare industry community clouds are used to
share information and knowledge on the global level with sensitive data in
the private infrastructure.
3. Energy and core industry: In these sectors, the community cloud is used to
cluster set of solution which collectively addresses management,
deployment, and orchestration of services and operations.
4. Scientific research: In this organization with common interests of science
share large distributed infrastructure for scientific computing.

Virtualization

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Virtualization is the "creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of

something, such as a server, a desktop, a storage device, an operating system or
network resources".

In other words, Virtualization is a technique, which allows to share a single

physical instance of a resource or an application among multiple customers and
organizations. It does by assigning a logical name to a physical storage and
providing a pointer to that physical resource when demanded.

What is the concept behind the Virtualization?

Creation of a virtual machine over existing operating system and hardware is

known as Hardware Virtualization. A Virtual machine provides an environment
that is logically separated from the underlying hardware.

The machine on which the virtual machine is going to create is known as Host
Machine and that virtual machine is referred as a Guest Machine

Types of Virtualization:

1. Hardware Virtualization.
2. Operating system Virtualization.
3. Server Virtualization.
4. Storage Virtualization.

1) Hardware Virtualization:

When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) is directly
installed on the hardware system is known as hardware virtualization.

The main job of hypervisor is to control and monitoring the processor, memory
and other hardware resources.

After virtualization of hardware system we can install different operating system

on it and run different applications on those OS.

Usage:

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Hardware virtualization is mainly done for the server platforms, because

controlling virtual machines is much easier than controlling a physical server.

2) Operating System Virtualization:

When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) is

installed on the Host operating system instead of directly on the hardware system
is known as operating system virtualization.

Usage:

Operating System Virtualization is mainly used for testing the applications on

different platforms of OS.

3) Server Virtualization:

When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) is directly
installed on the Server system is known as server virtualization.

Usage:

Server virtualization is done because a single physical server can be divided into
multiple servers on the demand basis and for balancing the load.

4) Storage Virtualization:

Storage virtualization is the process of grouping the physical storage from multiple
network storage devices so that it looks like a single storage device.

Storage virtualization is also implemented by using software applications.

Usage:

Storage virtualization is mainly done for back-up and recovery purposes.

How does virtualization work in cloud computing?

Virtualization plays a very important role in the cloud computing technology,

normally in the cloud computing, users share the data present in the clouds like

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application etc, but actually with the help of virtualization users shares the
Infrastructure.

The main usage of Virtualization Technology is to provide the applications with

the standard versions to their cloud users, suppose if the next version of that
application is released, then cloud provider has to provide the latest version to
their cloud users and practically it is possible because it is more expensive.

To overcome this problem we use basically virtualization technology, By using

virtualization, all severs and the software application which are required by other
cloud providers are maintained by the third party people, and the cloud providers
has to pay the money on monthly or annual basis.

Conclusion

Mainly Virtualization means, running multiple operating systems on a single

machine but sharing all the hardware resources. And it helps us to provide the
pool of IT resources so that we can share these IT resources in order get benefits
in the business.

Server Virtualization

Server Virtualization is the process of dividing a physical server into several virtual
servers, called virtual private servers. Each virtual private server can run
independently.

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The concept of Server Virtualization widely used in the IT infrastructure to

minimizes the costs by increasing the utilization of existing resources.

Types of Server Virtualization

1. Hypervisor

In the Server Virtualization, Hypervisor plays an important role. It is a layer

between the operating system (OS) and hardware. There are two types of
hypervisors.

o Type 1 hypervisor ( also known as bare metal or native hypervisors)

o Type 2 hypervisor ( also known as hosted or Embedded hypervisors)

The hypervisor is mainly used to perform various tasks such as allocate physical
hardware resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) to several smaller independent virtual
machines, called "guest" on the host machine.

2. Full Virtualization

Full Virtualization uses a hypervisor to directly communicate with the CPU and
physical server. It provides the best isolation and security mechanism to the
virtual machines.

The biggest disadvantage of using hypervisor in full virtualization is that a

hypervisor has its own processing needs, so it can slow down the application and
server performance.

VMWare ESX server is the best example of full virtualization.

3. Para Virtualization

Para Virtualization is quite similar to the Full Virtualization. The advantage of

using this virtualization is that it is easier to use, Enhanced performance,
and does not require emulation overhead. Xen primarily and UML use the Para
Virtualization.

The difference between full and pare virtualization is that, in para virtualization
hypervisor does not need too much processing power to manage the OS.
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4. Operating System Virtualization

Operating system virtualization is also called as system-lever virtualization. It is

a server virtualization technology that divides one operating system into multiple
isolated user-space called virtual environments. The biggest advantage of using
server visualization is that it reduces the use of physical space, so it will save
money.

Linux OS Virtualization and Windows OS Virtualization are the types of

Operating System virtualization.

FreeVPS, OpenVZ, and Linux Vserver are some examples of System-Level

Virtualization.

Note: OS-Level Virtualization never uses a hypervisor.

5. Hardware Assisted Virtualization

Hardware Assisted Virtualization was presented by AMD and Intel. It is also

known as Hardware virtualization, AMD virtualization, and Intel virtualization. It
is designed to increase the performance of the processor. The advantage of using
Hardware Assisted Virtualization is that it requires less hypervisor overhead.

6. Kernel-Level Virtualization

Kernel-level virtualization is one of the most important types of server

virtualization. It is an open-source virtualization which uses the Linux kernel as a
hypervisor. The advantage of using kernel virtualization is that it does not require
any special administrative software and has very less overhead.

User Mode Linux (UML) and Kernel-based virtual machine are some examples of
kernel virtualization.

Advantages of Server Virtualization

There are the following advantages of Server Virtualization -

1. Independent Restart

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In Server Virtualization, each server can be restart independently and does not
affect the working of other virtual servers.

2. Low Cost

Server Virtualization can divide a single server into multiple virtual private servers,
so it reduces the cost of hardware components.

3. Disaster Recovery<

Disaster Recovery is one of the best advantages of Server Virtualization. In Server

Virtualization, data can easily and quickly move from one server to another and
these data can be stored and retrieved from anywhere.

4. Faster deployment of resources

Server virtualization allows us to deploy our resources in a simpler and faster way.

5. Security

It allows uses to store their sensitive data inside the data centers.

Disadvantages of Server Virtualization

There are the following disadvantages of Server Virtualization -

1. The biggest disadvantage of server virtualization is that when the server

goes offline, all the websites that are hosted by the server will also go
down.
2. There is no way to measure the performance of virtualized environments.
3. It requires a huge amount of RAM consumption.
4. It is difficult to set up and maintain.
5. Some core applications and databases are not supported virtualization.
6. It requires extra hardware resources.

Uses of Server Virtualization

A list of uses of server virtualization is given below -

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o Server Virtualization is used in the testing and development environment.

o It improves the availability of servers.
o It allows organizations to make efficient use of resources.
o It reduces redundancy without purchasing additional hardware
components.

Cloud Computing Data Storage

Cloud Storage is a service that allows to save data on offsite storage system
managed by third-party and is made accessible by a web services API.

Storage Devices

Storage devices can be broadly classified into two categories:

 Block Storage Devices

 File Storage Devices

Block Storage Devices

The block storage devices offer raw storage to the clients. These raw storage are
partitioned to create volumes.

File Storage Devices

The file Storage Devices offer storage to clients in the form of files, maintaining
its own file system. This storage is in the form of Network Attached Storage (NAS).

Cloud Storage Classes

Cloud storage can be broadly classified into two categories:

 Unmanaged Cloud Storage

 Managed Cloud Storage

Unmanaged Cloud Storage

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Unmanaged cloud storage means the storage is preconfigured for the customer.
The customer can neither format, nor install his own file system or change drive
properties.

Managed Cloud Storage

Managed cloud storage offers online storage space on-demand. The managed
cloud storage system appears to the user to be a raw disk that the user can
partition and format.

Creating Cloud Storage System

The cloud storage system stores multiple copies of data on multiple servers, at
multiple locations. If one system fails, then it is required only to change the
pointer to the location, where the object is stored.

To aggregate the storage assets into cloud storage systems, the cloud provider
can use storage virtualization software known as StorageGRID. It creates a
virtualization layer that fetches storage from different storage devices into a
single management system. It can also manage data from CIFS and NFS file
systems over the Internet. The following diagram shows how StorageGRID
virtualizes the storage into storage clouds:

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Virtual Storage Containers

The virtual storage containers offer high performance cloud storage

systems. Logical Unit Number (LUN) of device, files and other objects are created
in virtual storage containers. Following diagram shows a virtual storage container,
defining a cloud storage domain:

Challenges

Storing the data in cloud is not that simple task. Apart from its flexibility and
convenience, it also has several challenges faced by the customers. The customers
must be able to:

 Get provision for additional storage on-demand.

 Know and restrict the physical location of the stored data.
 Verify how data was erased.
 Have access to a documented process for disposing of data storage
hardware.

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 Have administrator access control over data.

Cloud Computing Management

It is the responsibility of cloud provider to manage resources and their

performance. Management of resources includes several aspects of cloud
computing such as load balancing, performance, storage, backups, capacity,
deployment, etc. The management is essential to access full functionality of
resources in the cloud.

Cloud Management Tasks

The cloud provider performs a number of tasks to ensure efficient use of cloud
resources. Here, we will discuss some of them:

Audit System Backups

It is required to audit the backups timely to ensure restoring of randomly selected

files of different users. Backups can be performed in following ways:

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

 Backing up files by the company, from on-site computers to the disks that
reside within the cloud.
 Backing up files by the cloud provider.

It is necessary to know if cloud provider has encrypted the data, who has access
to that data and if the backup is taken at different locations then the user must
know the details of those locations.

Data Flow of the System

The managers are responsible to develop a diagram describing a detailed process

flow. This process flow describes the movement of data belonging to an
organization throughout the cloud solution.

Vendor Lock-In Awareness and Solutions

The managers must know the procedure to exit from services of a particular cloud
provider. The procedures must be defined to enable the cloud managers to
export data of an organization from their system to another cloud provider.

Knowing Provider’s Security Procedures

The managers should know the security plans of the provider for the following
services:

 Multitenant use
 E-commerce processing
 Employee screening
 Encryption policy

Monitoring Capacity Planning and Scaling Capabilities

The managers must know the capacity planning in order to ensure whether the
cloud provider is meeting the future capacity requirement for his business or not.

The managers must manage the scaling capabilities in order to ensure services
can be scaled up or down as per the user need.

Monitor Audit Log Use

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

In order to identify errors in the system, managers must audit the logs on a
regular basis.

Solution Testing and Validation

When the cloud provider offers a solution, it is essential to test it in order to

ensure that it gives the correct result and it is error-free. This is necessary for a
system to be robust and reliable.

Service level agreements

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the bond for performance negotiated

between the cloud services provider and the client. Earlier, in cloud computing all
Service Level Agreements were negotiated between a client and the service
consumer. Nowadays, with the initiation of large utility-like cloud computing
providers, most Service Level Agreements are standardized until a client becomes
a large consumer of cloud services. Service level agreements are also defined
at different levels which are mentioned below:

 Customer-based SLA
 Service-based SLA
 Multilevel SLA

Few Service Level Agreements are enforceable as contracts, but mostly are
agreements or contracts which are more along the lines of an Operating Level
Agreement (OLA) and may not have the restriction of law. It is fine to have an
attorney review the documents before making a major agreement to the cloud
service provider. Service Level Agreements usually specify some
parameters which are mentioned below:

1. Availability of the Service (uptime)

2. Latency or the response time
3. Service components reliability
4. Each party accountability
5. Warranties

In any case, if a cloud service provider fails to meet the stated targets of
minimums then the provider has to pay the penalty to the cloud service consumer

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

as per the agreement. So, Service Level Agreements are like insurance policies in
which the corporation has to pay as per the agreements if any casualty occurs.
Microsoft publishes the Service Level Agreements linked with the Windows Azure
Platform components, which is demonstrative of industry practice for cloud
service vendors. Each individual component has its own Service Level
Agreements. Below are two major Service Level Agreements (SLA) described:

1. Windows Azure SLA –

Window Azure has different SLA’s for compute and storage. For compute,
there is a guarantee that when a client deploys two or more role instances
in separate fault and upgrade domains, client’s internet facing roles will
have external connectivity minimum 99.95% of the time. Moreover, all of
the role instances of the client are monitored and there is guarantee of
detection 99.9% of the time when a role instance’s process is not runs and
initiates properly.
2. SQL Azure SLA –
SQL Azure clients will have connectivity between the database and internet
gateway of SQL Azure. SQL Azure will handle a “Monthly Availability” of
99.9% within a month. Monthly Availability Proportion for a particular
tenant database is the ratio of the time the database was available to
customers to the total time in a month. Time is measured in some intervals
of minutes in a 30-day monthly cycle. Availability is always remunerated for
a complete month. A portion of time is marked as unavailable if the
customer’s attempts to connect to a database are denied by the SQL Azure
gateway.

Service Level Agreements are based on the usage model. Frequently, cloud
providers charge their pay-as-per-use resources at a premium and deploy
standards Service Level Agreements only for that purpose. Clients can also
subscribe at different levels that guarantees access to a particular amount of
purchased resources. The Service Level Agreements (SLAs) attached to a
subscription many times offer various terms and conditions. If client requires
access to a particular level of resources, then the client need to subscribe to a
service. A usage model may not deliver that level of access under peak load
condition.

Wireless Networks

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

Computer networks that are not connected by cables are called wireless
networks. They generally use radio waves for communication between the
network nodes. They allow devices to be connected to the network while roaming
around within the network coverage.

Types of Wireless Networks

 Wireless LANs − Connects two or more network devices using wireless

distribution techniques.
 Wireless MANs − Connects two or more wireless LANs spreading over a
metropolitan area.
 Wireless WANs − Connects large areas comprising LANs, MANs and
personal networks.

Advantages of Wireless Networks

 It provides clutter-free desks due to the absence of wires and cables.

 It increases the mobility of network devices connected to the system since
the devices need not be connected to each other.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

 Accessing network devices from any location within the network coverage
or Wi-Fi hotspot becomes convenient since laying out cables is not needed.
 Installation and setup of wireless networks are easier.
 New devices can be easily connected to the existing setup since they
needn’t be wired to the present equipment. Also, the number of
equipment that can be added or removed to the system can vary
considerably since they are not limited by the cable capacity. This makes
wireless networks very scalable.
 Wireless networks require very limited or no wires. Thus, it reduces the
equipment and setup costs.

Examples of wireless networks

 Mobile phone networks

 Wireless sensor networks
 Satellite communication networks
 Terrestrial microwave networks

Internet

Internet is defined as an Information super Highway, to access information over

the web. However, It can be defined in many ways as follows:

 Internet is a world-wide global system of interconnected computer

networks.
 Internet uses the standard Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
 Every computer in internet is identified by a unique IP address.
 IP Address is a unique set of numbers (such as 110.22.33.114) which
identifies a computer location.
 A special computer DNS (Domain Name Server) is used to give name to the
IP Address so that user can locate a computer by a name.
 For example, a DNS server will resolve a
name http://www.tutorialspoint.com to a particular IP address to uniquely
identify the computer on which this website is hosted.
 Internet is accessible to every user all over the world.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

Evolution

The concept of Internet was originated in 1969 and has undergone several
technological & Infrastructural changes as discussed below:

 The origin of Internet devised from the concept of Advanced Research

Project Agency Network (ARPANET).
 ARPANET was developed by United States Department of Defense.
 Basic purpose of ARPANET was to provide communication among the
various bodies of government.
 Initially, there were only four nodes, formally called Hosts.
 In 1972, the ARPANET spread over the globe with 23 nodes located at
different countries and thus became known as Internet.
 By the time, with invention of new technologies such as TCP/IP protocols,
DNS, WWW, browsers, scripting languages etc.,Internet provided a medium
to publish and access information over the web.

Advantages

Internet covers almost every aspect of life, one can think of. Here, we will discuss
some of the advantages of Internet:

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

 Internet allows us to communicate with the people sitting at remote

locations. There are various apps available on the wed that uses Internet as
a medium for communication. One can find various social networking sites
such as:
o Facebook
o Twitter
o Yahoo
o Google+
o Flickr
o Orkut
 One can surf for any kind of information over the internet. Information
regarding various topics such as Technology, Health & Science, Social
Studies, Geographical Information, Information Technology, Products etc
can be surfed with help of a search engine.
 Apart from communication and source of information, internet also serves
a medium for entertainment. Following are the various modes for
entertainment over internet.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

o Online Television
o Online Games
o Songs
o Videos
o Social Networking Apps
 Internet allows us to use many services like:
o Internet Banking
o Matrimonial Services
o Online Shopping
o Online Ticket Booking
o Online Bill Payment
o Data Sharing
o E-mail
 Internet provides concept of electronic commerce, that allows the business
deals to be conducted on electronic systems

Disadvantages

However, Internet has prooved to be a powerful source of information in almost

every field, yet there exists many disadvanatges discussed below:

 There are always chances to loose personal information such as name,

address, credit card number. Therefore, one should be very careful while

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9

sharing such information. One should use credit cards only through
authenticated sites.
 Another disadvantage is the Spamming.Spamming corresponds to the
unwanted e-mails in bulk. These e-mails serve no purpose and lead to
obstruction of entire system.
 Virus can easily be spread to the computers connected to internet. Such
virus attacks may cause your system to crash or your important data may
get deleted.
 Also a biggest threat on internet is pornography. There are many
pornographic sites that can be found, letting your children to use internet
which indirectly affects the children healthy mental life.
 There are various websites that do not provide the authenticated
information. This leads to misconception among many people.

454
DIWAKAR EDUCATION HUB

Data Communication and Computer

Networks Unit – 9 MCQs
As per updated syllabus
DIWAKAR EDUCATION HUB

2020

THE LEARN WITH EXPERTIES

Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

1) Which of these is a standard interface for Hide Answer Workspace

serial data transmission?
Answer: (d) Double Duplex
a) ASCII Explanation: Double duplex is not a
b) RS232C legitimate channel for transmission in
c) 2 computer network.
d) Centronics
4) "Parity bits" are used for which of the
Answer: (b) RS232C following purposes?

a) Encryption of data
Explanation: The RS232C is a standard
interface for serial data transmission that b) To transmit faster
defines the protocol and physical interface c) To detect errors
for transmitting serial data fairly easily d) To identify the user
between associated appliances and
computers. Answer: (c) To detect errors

2) Which type of topology is best suited for Explanation: The parity bit is also known as
large businesses which must carefully the check bit, and has a value of 0 or 1. It is
control and coordinate the operation of used for error detection for blocks of data.
distributed branch outlets?
5) What kind of transmission medium is
a) Ring most appropriate to carry data in a
computer network that is exposed to
b) Local area
electrical interferences?
c) Hierarchical
d) Star a) Unshielded twisted pair
b) Optical fiber
Answer: (d) Star c) Coaxial cable
d) Microwave
Explanation: The star topology is the best
network topology for large businesses Answer: (b) Optical fiber
because it is simple to control and
coordinate from the central computer. Explanation: The optical fiber is made of
glass or plastic. In this cable, the
3) Which of the following transmission transmission of data occurs in the form of
directions listed is not a legitimate channel?
light rather than the electric current, so this
a) Simplex cable provides higher data transfer speed
b) Half Duplex than other cables.
c) Full Duplex 6) A collection of hyperlinked documents on
d) Double Duplex the internet forms the ?.?
2
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) World Wide Web (WWW) a) with external access

b) E-mail system b) acting as a backup
c) Mailing list c) performing file handling
d) Hypertext markup language d) accessing user permissions

Answer: (a) World Wide Web (WWW) Answer: (a) with external access

Explanation: World Wide Web (WWW) Explanation: A proxy server is a computer

creates a collection of hyperlinked that acts as a gateway between a user's
documents on the Internet. computer and the Internet. The proxy
server is also called application level
7) The location of a resource on the internet
gateway. By this the client computer can
is given by its?
establish indirect network connection to
a) Protocol another network.
b) URL
10) Which one of the following would
c) E-mail address
breach the integrity of a system?
d) ICQ
a) Looking the room to prevent theft
Answer: (b) URL
b) Full access rights for all users
Explanation: A URL (Uniform Resource c) Fitting the system with an anti-theft
Locator) is a database connection that device
describes the database's location on a d) Protecting the device against willful
computer network and the retrieval or accidental damage
process. A URL is a different form of URI
Answer: (b) Full access rights for all users
(Uniform Resource Identifier) although the
two words are used interchangeably by Explanation: None
many people.
11) Which software prevents the external
8) The term HTTP stands for? access to a system?

a) Hyper terminal tracing program a) Firewall

b) Hypertext tracing protocol b) Gateway
c) Hypertext transfer protocol c) Router
d) Hypertext transfer program d) Virus checker

Answer: (c) Hypertext transfer protocol Answer: (a) Firewall

Explanation: The term HTTP stands for Explanation: A firewall is a network

Hypertext transfer protocol. securing software that prevents
unauthorized users and dangerous
9) A proxy server is used as the computer?
3
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

elements from accessing the network. c) TCP/IP

Software firewall acts as a filter for our d) IPX/SPX
network which prevents harmful
Answer: (c) TCP/IP
information.
Explanation: TCP/IP is the most common
12) The structure or format of data is called
___________ internet protocol because it is the most
a) Syntax widely used network protocol.
b) Semantics
c) Struct 15) Software programs that allow you to
d) Formatting legally copy files and give them away at no
cost are called which of the following?
Answer: a
Explanation: The structure and format of a) Probe ware
data are defined using syntax. Semantics b) Timeshare
defines how a particular pattern to be c) Shareware
interpreted, and what action is to be taken d) Public domain
based on that interpretation. In Answer: (d) Public domain
programming languages, syntax of the
instructions plays a vital role in designing of Explanation: Public domain software can be
the program. modified, distributed or sold by anyone
without any attention, but no one can ever
13) Which of the following best describes own it.
uploading information?
16) The term FTP stands for?
a) Sorting data on a disk drive
b) Sending information to a host a) File transfer program
computer b) File transmission protocol
c) Receiving information from a host c) File transfer protocol
computer d) File transfer protection
d) Sorting data on a hard drive
Answer: (c) File transfer protocol
Answer: (b) Sending information to a host
Explanation: The term FTP stands for File
computer
transfer protocol.
Explanation: None
17) At what speed does tele-computed
14) Which one of the following is the most refer?
common internet protocol?
a) Interface speed
a) HTML b) Cycles per second
b) NetBEUI c) Baud rate

4
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

d) Megabyte load 20) Which of the following statements

could be valid with respect to the ICMP
Hide Answer Workspace
(Internet Control Message Protocol)?
Answer: (c) Baud rate
a) It reports all errors which occur
Explanation: In telecommunication, baud during transmission.
rate is a specific unit of the speed rate. It is b) A redirect message is used when a
one of the significant functions that router notices that a packet seems
determine the speed of the communication to have been routed wrongly.
over the data channel. c) It informs routers when an incorrect
path has been taken.
18) Which one of the following is not a d) The "destination unreachable" type
network topology? message is used when a router
cannot locate the destination.
a) Star
Answer: (b) A redirect message is used
b) Ring
when a router notices that a packet seems
c) Bus to have been routed wrongly.

d) Peer to Peer Explanation: None

Answer: (d) Peer to Peer 21) The IP network 192.168.50.0 is to be

divided into 10 equal sized subnets. Which
Explanation: Peer to Peer network is a
of the following subnet masks can be used
network to which all computers are used
for the above requirement?
the same resources and rights as other
computers. Its network designed primarily a) 255.243.240
for the small local area. b) 255.255.0.0
c) 255.255.0
19) The maximum length (in bytes) of an
d) 255.255.255
IPv4 datagram is?
Answer: (c) 255.255.255.0
a) 32
b) 1024 Explanation: This address belongs to class
c) 65535 C, so 8 bits are reserved for the host ID. 24
d) 512 bits are reserved for network ID.

Answer: (c) 65535 22) When the mail server sends mail to
other mail servers it becomes ___ ?
Explanation: None
a) SMTP client
b) SMTP server

5
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) Peer d. (1) (2) (3) and (5)

d) Master
Answer: (c) (1) (2) and (5)
Answer: (a) SMTP client
Explanation: None
Explanation: The SMTP client is an
25) Which of the following address belongs
organization that allows sending emails
class A?
using the SMTP server. SMTP servers can't
send emails to other SMTP servers a) 121.12.12.248
separately. It is based on client-server b) 130.12.12.248
architecture. c) 128.12.12.248
d) 129.12.12.248
23) The length of an IPv6 address is?
Answer: (a) 121.12.12.248
a) 32 bits
b) 64 bits Explanation: 121.12.12.248 address
c) 128 bits belongs the class A because the first octet
d) 256 bits value of this address lies between 0 and
127.
Answer: (c) 128 bits
26) Which of the following is correct IPv4
Explanation: An IPv6 address is 128 bits
address?
long, which has 2^128 address space.
a) 124.201.3.1.52
24) Consider the following:
b) 01.200.128.123
1. Twisted pair cables c) 300.142.210.64
d) 10110011.32.16.8
2. Microwaves and Satellite Signals
e) 128.64.0.0
3. Repeaters
Answer: (e) 128.64.0.0
4. Analog Transmissions
Explanation: 128.64.0.0 is correct IPv4
5. Fiber optics address because IPv4 is a standard
numbering system that uses four integers
Which of the above is consider as (a) signal from 0 to 255. The IP address is a group of
transmission medium is data numbers that identify user system on the
communications? network.
a. (1) and (5) 27) Which of the following IP addresses can
be used as (a) loop-back addresses?
b. (1) and (2)
a) 0.0.0.0
c. (1) (2) and (5)
6
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

b) 127.0.0.1 30) What IP address class allocates 8 bits for

c) 255.255.255.255 the host identification part?
d) 0.255.255.255
a) Class A
Answer: (b) 127.0.0.1 b) Class B
c) Class C
Explanation: A loopback address is a special
d) Class D
IP address whose IP address is between
127.0.0.1 to 127.255.255.255. It is reserved Answer: (c) Class C
for loopback. It doesn't require a physical
Explanation: In class C only, 8 bits are
connection to a network.
reserved for the host ID, and 24 bits are
28) The term WAN stands for? reserved for network ID.

a) Wide Area Net 31) The term IANA stands for?

b) Wide Access Network
a) Internet Assigned Numbers
c) Wide Area Network
Authority
d) Wide Access Net
b) Internal Assigned Numbers
Answer: (c) Wide Area Network Authority
c) Internet Associative Numbers
Explanation: The term WAN stands for
Authoritative
Wide Area Network.
d) Internal Associative Numbers
29) Which of the following cannot be used Authority
as a medium for 802.3 ethernet?
Answer: (a) Internet Assigned Numbers
a) A thin coaxial cable Authority
b) A twisted pair cable
Explanation: The term IANA stands for
c) A microwave link
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
d) A fiber optical cable
32) How many versions available of IP?
Answer: (c) A microwave link
a. 6 version
Explanation: A microwave link cannot be
used as a medium for 802.3 ethernets, b. 4 version
because a microwave link is a transmission
c. 2 version
network that utilizes a beam of radio waves
in the microwave frequency spectrum to d. 1 version
relay video, audio, or data between two
places. Answer: (c) 2 version

7
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Explanation: There are only two IP versions = (18.4 * 3.276) / 100

are avilable in the present: IP version 4
= 0.6027
(IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6).
35) On a simplex data link, which of the
33) Which layer of the TCP / IP stack
following is a possible error recovery
corresponds to the OSI model transport
technique?
layer?
a) Backward error correction (BEC)
a) Host to host
b) The use of hamming codes
b) Application
c) Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)
c) Internet
d) Downward error correction (DEC)
d) Network Access
Answer: (b) The use of hamming codes
Answer: (a) Host to Host
Explanation: The hamming codes is an error
Explanation: The host to host layer
recovery technique that can be used to
conforms the transport layer of the OSI
detect and correct the errors. It was
model. This layer is responsible for the final
developed by R.W. Hamming.
correspondence and error-free distribution
of data. 36) Which of the statement is correct with
regard to Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
34) An Aloha network uses an 18.2 kbps
and its variants?
channel for sending message packets of 100
bits long size. Calculate the maximum a) Statistical TDM makes efficient use
throughput. of the bandwidth only if the arrival
pattern of the data stream is
a) 5999
probabilistic.
b) 6900
b) TDM requires the transmitter and
c) 6027
receiver to be synchronized
d) 5027
periodically.
Answer: (c) 0.6027 c) TDM performs efficiently if the
arrival pattern of the data stream is
Explanation: In Pure Aloha, Efficiency =
probabilistic.
18.4%
d) Statistical TDM is efficient if the data
Usable bandwidth for 18.2 kbps = 18.2 * stream is deterministic.
0.18 = 3.276 kbps
Answer: (a) and (b)
Therefore, the maximum throughput of
Explanation: None
Pure Aloha
37) The term IPv4 stands for?
= 1/2e * 3.276
8
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) Internet Protocol Version 4 c) Bridge

b) Internet Programming Version 4 d) Hub
c) International Programming Version4
Answer: (b) Gateway
d) None of these
Explanation: If the system used separate
Answer: (a) Internet Protocol Version 4
protocols, gateway device is used to link
Explanation: The term IPv4 stands for two systems.
Internet Protocol Version 4.
41) How many digits of the Data Network
38) The term LAN stands for? Identification Code (DNIC) identify the
country?
a) Local Area Net
b) Local Aera Network a) first three
c) Local Array Network b) first four
d) Local Array Net c) first five
d) first six
Answer: (b) Local Area Network
e) None of the above
Explanation: The term LAN stands for Local
Answer: (a) first three
Area Network.
Explanation: The first three digits of the
39) Which of the through is share the data
Data Network Identification Code (DNIC) is
of two computer?
identify the country (first digit to identify a
a) Library zone and other two digits to identify the
b) Network country within the zone).
c) Grouping
42) Which of the following methods is used
d) Integrated system
to broadcast two packets on the medium at
Answer: (b) Network a time?

Explanation: There are many ways to share a) Collision

data between two computers, but a b) Synchronous
network connection is established before c) Asynchronous
data sharing. d) None of the above

40) In specific, if the systems use separate Answer: (a) Collision

protocols, which one of the following
Explanation: A collision occurs when two or
devices is used to link two systems?
more computers are attempting to transfer
a) Repeater data across a network at a time.
b) Gateway

9
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

43) Which of the following is true with Answer: (c) Electronic code book algorithm
regard to the ping command?
Explanation: An electronic code book
a) Ping stands for Packet Internet algorithm is a mode of operation for a block
Generator. cipher, where each frame of text in an
b) The ping command checks the port encrypted document refers to a data field.
level connectivity between source In other terms, the same plaintext value
destinations end points. would also give the same value for
c) Ping summarizes the packet loss and ciphertext.
round-trip delay between two IP end
46) In the cryptography, the sequence of
points.
the letters is rearranged by?
d) The ping command activates the
RARP protocol of the IP layer. a) Transposition ciphers
b) Substitution ciphers
Answer: (c) Ping summarizes the packet
c) Both a and b
loss and round-trip delay between two IP
d) None of these
end points.
Answer: (a) Transposition ciphers
Explanation: None
Explanation: A predefined technique
44) The private key in asymmetric key
shuffles the sequence of letters in a
cryptography is kept by?
plaintext message in the transposition
a) Sender ciphers.
b) Receiver
47) What is the maximum efficiency of pure
c) Sender and Receiver
aloha at G = 1/2?
d) None of the these
a) 1.89
Answer: (b) Receiver
b) 17.99
Explanation: Only the receiver keeps the c) 18.999
private key. Its purpose is to ensure that the d) 18.4
message can only be decrypted by the
Answer: (d) 18.4
intended receiver.
Explanation: The maximum efficiency of
45) Which of the following algorithms is not
pure aloha formula is G * e-2G.
used in asymmetric-key cryptography?
Given, G =1/2
a) RSA algorithm
b) Diffie-Hellman algorithm =1/2 x e-2 x 1/2
c) Electronic code book algorithm
d) None of the mentioned = 1 / 2e

10
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

= 0.184 50) The correct order of corresponding OSI

layers for having functionalities of routing
= 18.4%
and reconciling machine representation
48) What is the maximum efficiency of differences with shared access resolution
slotted aloha at G = 1? and ASCII test protocol is?

a) 36.8 a) Network, Physical, Transport, Data

b) 35.8 link
c) 35.5 b) Network, Physical, Data link,
d) 37.8 Application
c) Network, Presentation, Data link,
Answer: (a) 36.8 Application
d) Network, Presentation, Physical,
Explanation: The maximum efficiency of
Transport
slotted aloha formula is G * e-G.
Answer: (c) Network, Presentation, Data
Given, G = 1
link, Application
= 1 x e-1
Explanation: None
=1/e
51. The IETF standards documents are
= 0.368 called ________
a) RFC
= 36.8%
b) RCF
49) Which of the following statement is true c) ID
about error detection techniques used on d) DFC
communications link?
Answer: a
a) Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) Explanation: RFC stands for Request For
sequence can detect as well as Comments and they are documents that
correct errors. describe methods, behaviors, research, or
b) Error detection cannot be used on innovations applicable to the working of the
simplex links. Internet.
c) Hamming code can detect up to 3-
52. In the layer hierarchy as the data packet
bit errors.
moves from the upper to the lower layers,
d) All of the these
headers are ___________
Answer: (d) All of the these a) Added
b) Removed
Explanation: None c) Rearranged
d) Modified
11
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: a c) Protocol
Explanation: Each layer adds its own header d) Route
to the packet from the previous layer. For
Answer: b
example, in the Internet layer, the IP header
Explanation: Messages travel from sender
is added over the TCP header on the data
to receiver via a physical path called the
packet that came from the transport layer.
medium using a set of methods/rules called
53. Communication between a computer protocol. Mediums can be guided (wired) or
and a keyboard involves ______________ unguided (wireless).
transmission.
56. When collection of various computers
a) Automatic
seems a single coherent system to its client,
b) Half-duplex
then it is called _________
c) Full-duplex
a) computer network
d) Simplex
b) distributed system
Answer: d c) networking system
Explanation: In simplex transmission, data d) mail system
flows in single direction which in this case
Answer: b
refers to the data flowing from the
Explanation: A Computer network is defined
keyboard to the computer. Another
as a collection of interconnected computers
example would be of the mouse where the
which uses a single technology for
data flows from the mouse to the computer
connection.
only.
A distributed system is also the same as
54. The first Network was called ________ computer network but the main difference
a) CNNET is that the whole collection of computers
b) NSFNET appears to its users as a single coherent
c) ASAPNET system.
d) ARPANET Example:- World wide web

Answer: d 57. Two devices are in network if

Explanation: ARPANET stands for Advanced __________
Research Projects Agency Networks. It was a) a process in one device is able to
the first network to be implemented which exchange information with a process in
used the TCP/IP protocol in the year 1969. another device
b) a process is running on both devices
55. A _______ is the physical path over
c) PIDs of the processes running of different
which a message travels.
devices are same
a) Path
d) a process is active and another is inactive
b) Medium

12
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: a and Smartphones are some examples of

Explanation: A computer network, or data network nodes.
network, is a digital telecommunications
60. Communication channel is shared by all
network which allows nodes to share
the machines on the network in ________
resources. In computer networks,
a) broadcast network
computing devices exchange data with each
b) unicast network
other using connections between nodes.
c) multicast network
The nodes have certain processes which
d) anycast network
enable them to share a specific type of data
using a distinct protocol. Answer: a
Explanation: In a broadcast network,
58. Which of the following computer
information is sent to all stations in a
networks is built on the top of another
network whereas in a multicast network the
network?
data or information is sent to a group of
a) prior network
stations in the network. In unicast network,
b) chief network
information is sent to only one specific
c) prime network
station. The broadcast address of the
d) overlay network
network is the last assigned address of the
Answer: d network.
Explanation: An overlay network is a
61. Bluetooth is an example of __________
computer network that is built on top of
a) personal area network
another network. Some examples of an
b) local area network
overlay network are Virtual Private
c) virtual private network
Networks (VPN) and Peer-to-Peer Networks
d) wide area network
(P2P).
Answer: a
59. In computer network nodes are
Explanation: Bluetooth is a wireless
_________
technology used to create a wireless
a) the computer that originates the data
personal area network for data transfer up
b) the computer that routes the data
to a distance of 10 meters. It operates on
c) the computer that terminates the data
2.45 GHz frequency band for transmission.
d) all of the mentioned
62. A __________ is a device that forwards
Answer: d
packets between networks by processing
Explanation: In a computer network, a node
the routing information included in the
can be anything that is capable of sending
packet.
data or receiving data or even routing the
a) bridge
data to its destination. Routers, Computers
b) firewall

13
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) router management uses various open-loop and

d) hub closed-loop congestion control techniques.

Answer: c 65. Which of the following networks

Explanation: A router is a networking device extends a private network across public
that forwards data packets between networks?
computer networks. Routers perform the a) local area network
traffic directing functions on the Internet. b) virtual private network
They make use of routing protocols like RIP c) enterprise private network
to find the cheapest path to the destination. d) storage area network

63. A list of protocols used by a system, one Answer: b

protocol per layer, is called ________ Explanation: A virtual private network
a) protocol architecture extends a private network across a public
b) protocol stack network, and enables users to send and
c) protocol suite receive data across shared or public
d) protocol system networks as if their computing devices were
directly connected to the private
Answer: b
network.VPN provides enhanced security
Explanation: A protocol stack refers to a
and online anonymity to users on the
group of protocols that are running
internet. It is also used to unblock websites
concurrently that are employed for the
which are unavailable in certain regions.
implementation of network protocol suite.
Each layer in the network model has to use 66. Which of this is not a constituent of
one specific protocol from the protocol residential telephone line?
stack. a) A high-speed downstream channel
b) A medium-speed downstream channel
64. Network congestion occurs _________
c) A low-speed downstream channel
a) in case of traffic overloading
d) An ultra-high speed downstream channel
b) when a system terminates
c) when connection between two nodes Answer: c
terminates Explanation: A low-speed downstream
d) in case of transfer failure channel is not a constituent of a residential
telephone line. But it might be just a two-
Answer: a
way telephone channel. Internet can be
Explanation: Network congestion occurs
provided through a high-speed downstream
when traffic in the network is more than
channel in a residential telephone line.
the network could handle. To avoid
network congestion, the network 67. How many layers are present in the
Internet protocol stack (TCP/IP model)?

14
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) 5 functions of Presentation and Session layer

b) 7 in the OSI model are handled by the
c) 6 transport layer itself in TCP/IP. OSI is a
d) 10 generalized model and TCP/IP is an
application specific model.
Answer: a
Explanation: There are five layers in the 70. Application layer is implemented in
Internet Protocol stack. The five layers in ____________
Internet Protocol stack is Application, a) End system
Transport, Network, Data link and Physical b) NIC
layer. The internet protocol stack model is c) Ethernet
also called the TCP/IP model and it’s used in d) Packet transport
modern Internet Communication.
Answer: a
68. The number of layers in ISO OSI Explanation: Not only application layer, but
reference model is __________ presentation layer, session layer and
a) 5 transport layer are also implemented in the
b) 7 end system. The layers below are
c) 6 implemented outside the end system, for
d) 10 example, the network layer is implemented
on the routers and the physical layer is
Answer: b
implemented for the medium.
Explanation: The seven layers in ISO OSI
reference model is Application, 71. Transport layer is implemented in
Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, ______________
Data link and Physical layer. OSI stands for a) End system
Open System Interconnect and it is a b) NIC
generalized model. c) Ethernet
d) Signal transmission
69. Which of the following layers is an
addition to OSI model when compared with Answer: a
TCP IP model? Explanation: Application, Presentation,
a) Application layer Session and Transport layer are
b) Presentation layer implemented in the end system. The
c) Session layer transport layer handles the process to
d) Session and Presentation layer process delivery of the packet through
ports.
Answer: d
Explanation: The only difference between 72. The functionalities of the presentation
OSI model and TCP/IP model is that the layer include ____________

15
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) Data compression c) Link layer

b) Data encryption d) Session layer
c) Data description
Answer: d
d) All of the mentioned
Explanation: In OSI reference model, the
Answer: d fifth layer is Session layer. Session layer
Explanation: Some functions of the provides the mechanism for opening,
presentation layer include character-code closing and managing a session between
translation, data conversion, data end-user application processes. In TCP/IP
encryption and decryption, and data protocol stack, the functions of the session
translation. It connects the application layer layer are handled by the transport layer
with the layers below converting the human itself and thus the session layer is missing
readable text and media to machine from the TCP/IP model.
readable format and vice-versa.
75. In TCP IP Model, when data is sent from
73. Delimiting and synchronization of data device A to device B, the 5th layer to
exchange is provided by __________ receive data at B is ____________
a) Application layer a) Application layer
b) Session layer b) Transport layer
c) Transport layer c) Link layer
d) Link layer d) Session layer

Answer: b Answer: a
Explanation: The session layer provides the Explanation: In TCP/IP model, the fifth layer
mechanism for opening, closing and is application layer. When data is sent from
managing a session between end-user device A to device B, the 5th layer to
application processes. The session layer 5 is receive data at B is application layer.
responsible for establishing managing Application layer provides the interface
synchronizing and terminating sessions. In between applications and the network. The
TCP/IP protocol stack, the functions of the user interacts with only this layer.
session layer are handled by the transport
76. In the OSI model, as a data packet
layer itself and thus the session layer is
moves from the lower to the upper layers,
missing from the TCP/IP model.
headers are _______
74. In OSI model, when data is sent from a) Added
device A to device B, the 5th layer to b) Removed
receive data at B is _________ c) Rearranged
a) Application layer d) Randomized
b) Transport layer

16
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: b applications communicate over a network,

Explanation: In OSI reference model, when which also helps us to have a structured
data packet moves from lower layers to plan for troubleshooting. It is recognized by
higher layer, headers get removed. the ISO as the generalized model for
Whereas when the data packet moves from computer network i.e. it can be modified to
higher layer to lower layers, headers are design any kind of computer network.
added. These headers contain the essential
79. The number of layers in ISO OSI
control information for the protocols used
reference model is __________
on the specific layer.
a) 4
77. Which of the following statements can b) 5
be associated with OSI model? c) 6
a) A structured way to discuss and easier d) 7
update system components
Answer: d
b) One layer may duplicate lower layer
Explanation: In OSI reference model, there
functionality
are 7 layers namely Application,
c) Functionality at one layer no way
Presentation, Session, Transport, Network,
requires information from another layer
Data Link and Physical layer. Each layer uses
d) It is an application specific network
a protocol to perform its designated
model
function, for example, the data link layer
Answer: c uses error detection protocols for error
Explanation: One layer may use the control functions.
information from another layer, for
80. TCP/IP model does not have ______
example timestamp value. The information
layer but OSI model have this layer.
is contained in the header inserted by the
a) session layer
previous layer. The headers are added as
b) transport layer
the packet moves from higher layers to the
c) application layer
lower layers.
d) network layer
78. OSI stands for __________
Answer: a
a) open system interconnection
Explanation: In OSI reference model, there
b) operating system interface
are two layers which are not present in
c) optical service implementation
TCP/IP model. They are Presentation and
d) open service Internet
Session layer. The functions of Presentation
Answer: a and Session layer in the OSI model are
Explanation: OSI is the abbreviation for handled by the transport layer itself in
Open System Interconnection. OSI model TCP/IP.
provides a structured plan on how

17
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

81. Which layer is used to link the network Answer: a

support layers and user support layers? Explanation: Several TCP/IP prototypes
a) session layer were developed at multiple research
b) data link layer centers between 1978 and 1983, whereas
c) transport layer OSI reference model was developed in the
d) network layer year 1984. TCP/IP was developed with the
intention to create a model for the Internet
Answer: c
while OSI was intended to be a general
Explanation: Physical, data link and network
network model.
layers are network support layers and
session, presentation and application layers 84. Which layer is responsible for process to
are user support layers. The transport layer process delivery in a general network
links these layers by segmenting and model?
rearranging the data. It uses protocols like a) network layer
TCP and UDP. b) transport layer
c) session layer
82. Which address is used on the internet
d) data link layer
for employing the TCP/IP protocols?
a) physical address and logical address Answer: b
b) port address Explanation: The role of Transport layer
c) specific address (Layer 4) is to establish a logical end to end
d) all of the mentioned connection between two systems in a
network. The protocols used in Transport
Answer: d
layer is TCP and UDP. The transport layer is
Explanation: The physical, logical, port and
responsible for segmentation of the data. It
specific addresses are used in TCP/IP
uses ports for the implementation of
protocol. All the addressing schemes, that is
process-to-process delivery.
physical (MAC) and logical address, port
address and specific address are employed 85. Which address is used to identify a
in both TCP/IP model and OSI model. In process on a host by the transport layer?
TCP/IP, the addresses are more focused on a) physical address
the internet implementation of these b) logical address
addresses. c) port address
d) specific address
83. TCP/IP model was developed _____ the
OSI model. Answer: c
a) prior to Explanation: A port number is a way to
b) after identify a specific process to which an
c) simultaneous to Internet or other network message is to be
d) with no link to forwarded when it arrives at a server. Some

18
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

examples of port numbers are port 20 88. The physical layer is concerned with
which is used for FTP data, port 22 which is ___________
used for SSH remote login ,and port 23 a) bit-by-bit delivery
which is used for TELNET. p) process to process delivery
c) application to application delivery
86. Which layer provides the services to
d) port to port delivery
user?
a) application layer Answer: a
b) session layer Explanation: Physical layer deals with bit to
c) presentation layer bit delivery in networking. The data unit in
d) physical layer the physical layer is bits. Process to process
delivery or the port to port delivery is dealt
Answer: a
in the transport layer. The various
Explanation: In networking, a user mainly
transmission mediums aid the physical layer
interacts with application layer to create
in performing its functions.
and send information to other computer or
network. Application layer provides the 89. Which transmission media provides the
interface between applications and the highest transmission speed in a network?
network. It is the top-most layer in both the a) coaxial cable
TCP/IP and the OSI model. b) twisted pair cable
c) optical fiber
87. Transmission data rate is decided by
d) electrical cable
____________
a) network layer Answer: c
b) physical layer Explanation: Fiber optics is considered to
c) data link layer have the highest transmission speed among
d) transport layer the all mentioned above. The fiber optics
transmission runs at 1000Mb/s. It is called
Answer: b
as 1000Base-Lx whereas IEEE standard for it
Explanation: Physical layer is a layer 1
is 802.3z. It is popularly used for modern
device which deals with network cables or
day network connections due to its high
the standards in use like connectors, pins,
transmission rate.
electric current used etc. Basically the
transmission speed is determined by the 90. Bits can be sent over guided and
cables and connectors used. Hence it is unguided media as analog signal by
physical layer that determines the ___________
transmission speed in network. Some of the a) digital modulation
cables used for high speed data b) amplitude modulation
transmission are optical fiber cables and c) frequency modulation
twisted pair cables. d) phase modulation

19
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: a current used is dealt in the physical layer

Explanation: In analog modulation, digital (Layer 1). Physical layer deals with bit to bit
low frequency baseband signal (digital bit delivery of the data aided by the various
stream) is transmitted over a higher transmission mediums.
frequency. Whereas in digital modulation
93. The data link layer takes the packets
the only difference is that the base band
from _________ and encapsulates them
signal is of discrete amplitude level. The bits
into frames for transmission.
are represented by only two frequency
a) network layer
levels, one for high and one for low.
b) physical layer
91. The portion of physical layer that c) transport layer
interfaces with the media access control d) application layer
sublayer is called ___________
Answer: a
a) physical signalling sublayer
Explanation: In computer networks, the
b) physical data sublayer
data from application layer is sent to
c) physical address sublayer
transport layer and is converted to
d) physical transport sublayer
segments. These segments are then
Answer: a transferred to the network layer and these
Explanation: The portion of physical layer are called packets. These packets are then
that interfaces with the medium access sent to data link layer where they are
control sublayer is Physical Signaling encapsulated into frames. These frames are
Sublayer. The main function of this layer is then transferred to physical layer where the
character encoding, reception, decoding frames are converted to bits. Error control
and performs optional isolation functions. It and flow control data is inserted in the
handles which media connection the signal frames at the data link layer.
should be forwarded to physically.
94. Which of the following tasks is not done
92. The physical layer provides __________ by data link layer?
a) mechanical specifications of electrical a) framing
connectors and cables b) error control
b) electrical specification of transmission c) flow control
line signal level d) channel coding
c) specification for IR over optical fiber
Answer: d
d) all of the mentioned
Explanation: Channel coding is the function
Answer: d of physical layer. Data link layer mainly
Explanation: Anything dealing with a deals with framing, error control and flow
network cable or the standards in use – control. Data link layer is the layer where
including pins, connectors and the electric the packets are encapsulated into frames.

20
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

95. Which sublayer of the data link layer Answer: a

performs data link functions that depend Explanation: The logical link control is a
upon the type of medium? sublayer of data link layer whose main
a) logical link control sublayer function is to manage traffic, flow and error
b) media access control sublayer control. The automatic repeat request error
c) network interface control sublayer management mechanism is provided by the
d) error control sublayer LLC when an error is found in the received
frame at the receiver’s end to inform the
Answer: b
sender to re-send the frame.
Explanation: Media access control (MAC)
deals with transmission of data packets to 98. The network layer is concerned with
and from the network-interface card, and __________ of data.
also to and from another remotely shared a) bits
channel. The MAC sublayer also prevents b) frames
collision using protocols like CSMA/CD. c) packets
d) bytes
96. Header of a frame generally contains
______________ Answer: c
a) synchronization bytes Explanation: In computer networks, the
b) addresses data from the application layer is sent to
c) frame identifier the transport layer and is converted to
d) all of the mentioned segments. These segments are then
transferred to the network layer and these
Answer: d
are called packets. These packets are then
Explanation: In a frame, the header is a part
sent to data link layer where they are
of the data that contains all the required
encapsulated into frames. These frames are
information about the transmission of the
then transferred to physical layer where the
file. It contains information like
frames are converted to bits.
synchronization bytes, addresses, frame
identifier etc. It also contains error control 99. Which one of the following is not a
information for reducing the errors in the function of network layer?
transmitted frames. a) routing
b) inter-networking
97. Automatic repeat request error
c) congestion control
management mechanism is provided by
d) error control
________
a) logical link control sublayer Answer: d
b) media access control sublayer Explanation: In the OSI model, network
c) network interface control sublayer layer is the third layer and it provides data
d) application access control sublayer routing paths for network communications.

21
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Error control is a function of the data link c) 5

layer and the transport layer. d) 7

100. A 4 byte IP address consists of Answer: c

__________ Explanation: 4 jpeg images + 1 base HTML
a) only network address file.
b) only host address
103. Multiple objects can be sent over a TCP
c) network address & host address
connection between client and server in a
d) network address & MAC address
persistent HTTP connection.
Answer: c a) True
Explanation: An ip address which is 32 bits b) False
long, that means it is of 4 bytes and is
Answer: a
composed of a network and host portion
Explanation: Persistent connections are
and it depends on address class. The size of
kept active after completing transaction so
the host address and network address
that multiple objects can be sent over the
depends upon the class of the address in
same TCP connection.
classful IP addressing.
104. FTP server listens for connection on
101. When displaying a web page, the
port number ____________
application layer uses the _____________
a) 20
a) HTTP protocol
b) 21
b) FTP protocol
c) 22
c) SMTP protocol
d) 23
d) TCP protocol
Answer: b
Answer: a
Explanation: Port 20 is used for FTP data.
Explanation: HTTP is abbreviation for
Port 22 is used for SSH remote login. Port
hypertext transfer protocol. It is the
23 is used for TELNET.
foundation of data communication for
world wide web. This protocol decides how 105. In FTP protocol, client contacts server
the message is formatted and transmitted using ____ as the transport protocol.
etc. a) transmission control protocol
b) user datagram protocol
102. The number of objects in a Web page
c) datagram congestion control protocol
which consists of 4 jpeg images and HTML
d) stream control transmission protocol
text is ________
a) 4 Answer: a
b) 1 Explanation: The clients use the
Transmission Control Protocol for FTP as it’s

22
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

more reliable than UDP, DCCP, and SCTP, transferred in a continuous stream. In Block
and reliability of file transfer is required to mode, data is transferred after being
be as high as possible for FTP. divided into smaller blocks. In Compressed
mode, data is transferred after being
106. In Active mode FTP, the client initiates
compressed using some compression
both the control and data connections.
algorithm.
a) True
b) False 109. Expansion of FTP is __________
a) Fine Transfer Protocol
Answer: b
b) File Transfer Protocol
Explanation: In Passive mode of FTP, the
c) First Transfer Protocol
client initiates both data and control
d) Fast Transfer Protocol
connections, while in Active mode, the
client initiates the control connection and Answer: b
then the server initiates the data Explanation: File Transfer Protocol is an
connection. application layer protocol used to share
“files” between a server and a client. The
107. The File Transfer Protocol is built on
protocol uses two separate ports for data
______________
and control connections: port 20 for data
a) data centric architecture
and port 21 for control.
b) service oriented architecture
c) client server architecture 110. FTP is built on _____ architecture.
d) connection oriented architecture a) Client-server
b) P2P
Answer: c
c) Data centric
Explanation: The FTP connection includes a
d) Service oriented
Server and a Client which wish to share
files. The server can have multiple clients at Answer: a
the same time while the client Explanation: An FTP connection includes a
communicates with only one server at a Server and a Client which wish to share a
time. number of data files. The server can
transfer files with multiple clients at the
108. In File Transfer Protocol, data transfer
same time while the client communicates
cannot be done in ___________
with only one server at a time.
a) stream mode
b) block mode 111. FTP uses _________ parallel TCP
c) compressed mode connections to transfer a file.
d) message mode a) 1
b) 2
Answer: d
Explanation: In Stream mode, the data is
23
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) 3 transferred, 1 control connection + 5 data

d) 4 connections = 6 total TCP connections.

Answer: b 114. When the mail server sends mail to

Explanation: Control connection using FTP other mail servers it becomes
port: 21, and data connection using FTP ____________
port: 20. The FTP session is started or ended a) SMTP server
using port 21 and the actual data i.e. files b) SMTP client
are sent through port 20. c) Peer
d) Master
112. Identify the incorrect statement
regarding FTP. Answer: b
a) FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol Explanation: SMTP clients are the entities
b) FTP uses two parallel TCP connections that send mails to other mail servers. The
c) FTP sends its control information in-band SMTP servers cannot send independent
d) FTP sends exactly one file over the data mails to other SMTP servers as an SMTP
connection server. There are no masters or peers in
SMTP as it is based on the client-server
Answer: c
architecture.
Explanation: FTP is out-of-band because the
data connection is done separately through 115. If you have to send multimedia data
port 20 and control connection is done over SMTP it has to be encoded into
separately through port 21. _______
a) Binary
113. If 5 files are transferred from server A
b) Signal
to client B in the same session. The number
c) ASCII
of TCP connections between A and B is
d) Hash
_______
a) 5 Answer: c
b) 10 Explanation: Since only 7-bit ASCII codes are
c) 2 transmitted through SMTP, it is mandatory
d) 6 to convert binary multimedia data to 7-bit
ASCII before it is sent using SMTP.
Answer: d
Explanation: The client would first initiate 116. Expansion of SMTP is ________
the TCP control connection through port 21. b) Simple Message Transfer Protocol
Then for every file transfer, a separate c) Simple Mail Transmission Protocol
connection would be made through port d) Simple Message Transmission Protocol
20. Now, since we have five files to be
Answer: a
Explanation: SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer
24
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Protocol is an application layer protocol Answer: a

used to transport e-mails over the Internet. Explanation: Since TCP is a reliable protocol,
Only 7-bit ASCII codes can be sent using it’s more efficient to use TCP protocol for e-
SMTP. mail transfer. TCP also provides more
security than other transport layer
117. In SMTP, the command to write
protocols.
receiver’s mail address is written with the
command _______ 120. SMTP connections secured by SSL are
a) SEND TO known as _____________
b) RCPT TO a) SMTPS
c) MAIL TO b) SSMTP
d) RCVR TO c) SNMP
d) STARTTLS
Answer: b
Explanation: RCPT TO command is followed Answer: a
by the recipient’s mail address to specify Explanation: SSMTP is a simple mail transfer
where or to whom the mail is going to program to send mail from a local PC to a
through the internet. If there is more than mail host. SNMP is a network management
one receiver, the command is repeated for protocol. STARTTLS connections are secured
each address continually. by TLS.

118. The underlying Transport layer 121. SMTP uses which of the following TCP
protocol used by SMTP is ________ port?
a) TCP a) 22
b) UDP b) 23
c) Either TCP or UDP c) 21
d) IMAP d) 25

Answer: a Answer: d
Explanation: TCP is a reliable protocol, and Explanation: Port 21 is used for FTP control
Reliability is a mandatory requirement in e- connection, port 22 is used by SSH, and port
mail transmission using SMTP. 23 is used by TELNET.

119. Simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) 122. Which one of the following protocol is
utilizes _________ as the transport layer used to receive mail messages?
protocol for electronic mail transfer. a) SMTP
a) TCP b) Post Office Protocol (POP)
b) UDP c) Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
c) DCCP d) FTP
d) SCTP

25
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: d Answer: b
Explanation: FTP is used to share files. Explanation: DNS client also known as DNS
SMTP, POP and IMAP are the protocols resolver also known as DNS lookup helps to
used to send and receive mails on the resolve DNS requests using an external DNS
internet. server.

123. What is on-demand mail relay 126. Servers handle requests for other
(ODMR)? domains _______
a) protocol for SMTP security a) directly
b) an SMTP extension b) by contacting remote DNS server
c) protocol for web pages c) it is not possible
d) protocol for faster mail transfer d) none of the mentioned

Answer: b Answer: b
Explanation: ODMR is an extension to Explanation: Whenever a request is
SMTP, in which mails are relayed to the received at server from other domains, it
receivers after they are authenticated. It handles this situation by contacting remote
allows only the authorized receivers to DNS server.
receive the mail.
127. DNS database contains _______
124. The entire hostname has a maximum a) name server records
of ___________ b) hostname-to-address records
a) 255 characters c) hostname aliases
b) 127 characters d) all of the mentioned
c) 63 characters
Answer: d
d) 31 characters
Explanation: Domain Name system not only
Answer: a deals with mapping IP addresses with the
Explanation: An entire hostname can have a hostname but also deals with exchange of
maximum of 255 characters. Although each information in the server.
label must be from 1 to 63 characters long.
128. If a server has no clue about where to
Host name is actually a label that is given to
find the address for a hostname then
a device in a network.
_______
125. A DNS client is called _________ a) server asks to the root server
a) DNS updater b) server asks to its adjcent server
b) DNS resolver c) request is not processed
c) DNS handler d) none of the mentioned
d) none of the mentioned
Answer: a
Explanation: Root name servers are actually
26
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

very important and critical as they are the d) internet corporation for assigned names
first step in translating human readable and numbers
hostnames into IP addresses for carrying
Answer: d
out communication.
Explanation: The ICANN (Internet
129. Which one of the following allows Corporation for Assigned Names and
client to update their DNS entry as their IP Numbers) deals with IP address space
address change? allocation, protocol identifier assignment,
a) dynamic DNS generic and country code Top Level domain
b) mail transfer agent name system management (gTLD and
c) authoritative name server ccTLD).
d) none of the mentioned
132. The domain name system is
Answer: a maintained by _______
Explanation: Dynamic DNS or in short DDNS a) distributed database system
or DynDNS helps in automatically updating b) a single server
a name server in the DNS. This does not c) a single computer
require manual editing. d) none of the mentioned

130. Wildcard domain names start with Answer: a

label _______ Explanation: A domain name system is
a) @ maintained by a distributed database
b) * system. It is a collection of multiple,
c) & logically interrelated databases distributed
d) # over a computer network.

Answer: b 133. Which one of the following is not true?

Explanation: A wildcard DNS record a) multiple hostnames may correspond to a
matches requests to a non existent domain single IP address
name. This wildcard DNS record is specified b) a single hostname may correspond to
by using asterisk “*” as the starting of a many IP addresses
domain name. c) a single hostname may correspond to a
single IP address
131. The right to use a domain name is
d) none of the mentioned
delegated by domain name registers which
are accredited by _______ Answer: c
a) internet architecture board Explanation: It need not be that a single
b) internet society hostname will correspond to a ip address.
c) internet research task force For example facebook.com and fb.com both
correspond to same ip address. So there

27
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

can be multiple hostnames for a single ip Answer: d

address. Explanation: VPNs were first introduced in
the year 1996. Then as the internet started
134. IPSec is designed to provide security at
to get popularized, the need for connection
the _________
security increased. VPN was a great solution
a) Transport layer
to this, and that’s when VPNs were
b) Network layer
implemented in the commercial world.
c) Application layer
d) Session layer 137. What protocol is NOT used in the
operation of a VPN?
Answer: b
a) PPTP
Explanation: IPSec is a set of protocols used
b) IPsec
to provide authentication, data integrity
c) YMUM
and confidentiality between two machines
d) L2TP
in an IP network. In the TCP/IP model, it
provides security at the IP layer i.e. the Answer: c
network layer. Explanation: PPTP is a tunneling protocol
which was initially used for the creation of
135. A ___________ is an extension of an
VPNs. IPSec is used in encrypting the traffic
enterprise’s private intranet across a public
flowing in the VPN. L2TP is used to tunnel
network such as the internet, creating a
all the L2 traffic on the VPN.
secure private connection.
a) VNP 138. Which of the following statements is
b) VPN NOT true concerning VPNs?
c) VSN a) Financially rewarding compared to leased
d) VSPN lines
b) Allows remote workers to access
Answer: b
corporate data
Explanation: VPN provides enhanced
c) Allows LAN-to-LAN connectivity over
security and online anonymity to users on
public networks
the internet. It is also used to unblock
d) Is the backbone of the Internet
websites that are unavailable in certain
regions. Answer: d
Explanation: VPNs are not the backbone of
136. When were VPNs introduced into the
the Internet as they are just a method to
commercial world?
create private intranets on the internet.
a) Early 80’s
They are used for enhancing the connection
b) Late 80’s
security for the users.
c) Early 90’s
d) Late 90’s

28
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

139. Traffic in a VPN is NOT ____________ Tunneling Protocol. It is used to tunnel all
a) Invisible from public networks the L2 traffic on an IP network and is able to
b) Logically separated from other traffic transmit network layer’s IP and IPX protocol
c) Accessible from unauthorized public data.
networks
142. The application layer protocol used by
d) Restricted to a single protocol in IPsec
a Telnet application is ________
Answer: c a) Telnet
Explanation: Traffic in a VPN is not b) FTP
accessible from any unauthorized public c) HTTP
networks because it is secured with the d) SMTP
masking IP address. This provides the
Answer: a
benefit of access to blocked resources to
Explanation: Telnet is an application layer
the users.
protocol that provides access to the
140. VPNs are financially speaking command-line interface on a remote host.
__________ Telnet stands for teletype network.
a) Always more expensive than leased lines
143. Which amongst the following
b) Always cheaper than leased lines
statements is correct for “character at a
c) Usually cheaper than leased lines
time” mode?
d) Usually more expensive than leased lines
a) Character processing is done on the local
Answer: c system under the control of the remote
Explanation: The services of a VPN are system
cheaper for moderate to large scale b) Most text typed is immediately sent to
institutional networks than the services of the remote host for processing
leased lines. Though for a small scale c) All text is echoed locally, only completed
network, it does not prove to be as lines are sent to the remote host
beneficial as the costs are not reduced to a d) All text is processed locally, and only
great degree as compared to leased lines. confirmed lines are sent to the remote host

141. Which layer 3 protocols can be Answer: b

transmitted over an L2TP VPN? Explanation: In character at a time mode,
a) Only IP the typed text is sent immediately to the
b) Only IPX remote host while the user is typing.
c) Only ICMP Another mode used in Telnet is “Old line by
d) IP and IPX line” mode in which only completed lines
are sent to the remote host.
Answer: d
Explanation: L2TP stands for Layer 2

29
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

144. _______ allows you to connect and 147. Which operating mode of telnet is full
login to a remote computer duplex?
a) Telnet a) default mode
b) FTP b) server mode
c) HTTP c) line mode
d) SMTP d) character mode

Answer: a Answer: c
Explanation: Telnet provides access to the Explanation: In line mode, terminal
command-line interface on a remote character processing is done on the client
computer. One can login to the computer side but editing is enabled on the server
from the command-line interface. side. Line mode reduces the number of
packets and is useful for long delay
145. Telnet is used for _______
networks.
a) Television on net
b) Network of Telephones 148. Telnet protocol is used to establish a
c) Remote Login connection to __________
d) Teleshopping site a) TCP port number 21
b) TCP port number 22
Answer: c
c) TCP port number 23
Explanation: Telnet is an application layer
d) TCP port number 25
protocol that provides access to the
command line interface of a remote Answer: c
computer that can be used to perform Explanation: TCP port 21 is used for FTP,
remote login. TCP port 22 is used for SSH and TCP port 25
is used for SMTP. Telnet provides access to
146. Which one of the following is not
a command line interface on a remote
correct?
computer using the TCP port number 23.
a) telnet is a general purpose client-server
program 149. Which one of the following is not true?
b) telnet lets user access an application on a a) telnet defines a network virtual terminal
remote computer (NVT) standard
c) telnet can also be used for file transfer b) client programs interact with NVT
d) telnet can be used for remote login c) server translates NVT operations
d) client can transfer files using to remote
Answer: c
server using NVT
Explanation: File Transfer Protocol is used
for file transfer. Telnet provides access to Answer: d
the command-line interface on a remote Explanation: The client can use the NVT
host. only to interact with the programs already

30
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

present on the remote server, not to delivery of a stream of bytes between hosts
transfer files to it. To transfer files, an FTP communicating via an IP network.
connection has to be used.
153. In TCP, sending and receiving data is
150. All telnet operations are sent as done as _______
________ a) Stream of bytes
a) 4 bits b) Sequence of characters
b) 8 bits c) Lines of data
c) 16 bits d) Packets
d) 32 bits
Answer: a
Answer: b Explanation: TCP provides stream oriented
Explanation: Telnet provides a bi- delivery between hosts communicating via
directional, 8-bit byte oriented an IP network and there are no message
communications facility through which boundaries. TCP can concatenate data from
operations are sent as 8-bit bytes for the a number of send () commands into one
server to interpret. stream of data and still transmit it reliably.

151. AbsoluteTelnet is a telnet client for 154. TCP process may not write and read
_______ Operating system. data at the same speed. So we need
a) windows __________ for storage.
b) linux a) Packets
c) mac b) Buffers
d) ubuntu c) Segments
d) Stacks
Answer: a
Explanation: AbsoluteTelnet was originally Answer: b
released in 1999. It was developed by Brian Explanation: A TCP receiver has a receive
Pence of Celestial Software. buffer that is used to store the unprocessed
incoming packets in case the sender is
152. Which of the following is false with
sending packets faster than the processing
respect to TCP?
rate of the received packets.
a) Connection-oriented
b) Process-to-process 155. TCP groups a number of bytes together
c) Transport layer protocol into a packet called _______
d) Unreliable a) Packet
b) Buffer
Answer: d
c) Segment
Explanation: TCP is a transport layer
d) Stack
protocol that provides reliable and ordered

31
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: c c) 20 and 60 bytes

Explanation: A segment may be collection d) 20 and 60 bits
of data from many send () statements. TCP
Answer: c
transmits each segment as a stream of
Explanation: The size of the header can be
bytes.
20 bytes at a minimum if there are no
156. Communication offered by TCP is options and can go up to 60 bytes at
________ maximum with 40 bytes in the options field.
a) Full-duplex The header contains all the control
b) Half-duplex information required to ensure ordered,
c) Semi-duplex error-free and reliable delivery of the
d) Byte by byte segment.

Answer: a 159. Connection establishment in TCP is

Explanation: Data can flow both the done by which mechanism?
directions at the same time during a TCP a) Flow control
communication hence, it is full-duplex. This b) Three-Way Handshaking
is the reason why TCP is used in systems c) Forwarding
that require full-duplex operation such as e- d) Synchronization
mail systems.
Answer: b
157. The receiver of the data controls the Explanation: A three-way handshake allows
amount of data that are to be sent by the both, the server and the client to choose
sender is referred to as ___________ their Initial Sequence Number and inform
a) Flow control about it to the other party. This won’t be
b) Error control possible using the two-way handshake
c) Congestion control mechanism.
d) Error detection
160. The server program tells its TCP that it
Answer: a is ready to accept a connection. This
Explanation: Flow control is done to prevent process is called ___________
the receiver from being overflowed with a) Active open
data. It is done using various open-loop b) Active close
(prevention) methods and closed-loop c) Passive close
(recovery) methods. d) Passive open

158. Size of TCP segment header ranges Answer: d

between ___________ Explanation: This is the first step in the
a) 16 and 32 bytes Three-Way Handshaking process and is
b) 16 and 32 bits started by the server. Then the Client picks

32
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

an ISN (Initial Sequence Number) and 163. Return value of the UDP port
synchronizes (shares) it with the Server “Chargen” is _______
requesting a connection. The Server a) String of characters
acknowledges the clients ISN, and then b) String of integers
picks an ISN and synchronizes it with the c) Array of characters with integers
Client. At last, the Client acknowledges the d) Array of zero’s and one’s
servers ISN.
Answer: a
161. A client that wishes to connect to an Explanation: Using Chargen with UDP on
open server tells its TCP that it needs to be port 19, the server sends a UDP datagram
connected to that particular server. The containing a random number of characters
process is called ___________ every time it receives a datagram from the
a) Active open connecting host. The number of characters
b) Active close is between 0 and 512.
c) Passive close
164. Beyond IP, UDP provides additional
d) Passive open
services such as _______
Answer: a a) Routing and switching
Explanation: This is the second step in the b) Sending and receiving of packets
Three-Way Handshaking process and is c) Multiplexing and demultiplexing
done by the client once it finds the open d) Demultiplexing and error checking
server and picks an ISN. The Server
Answer: d
acknowledges the clients request, and then
Explanation: De-multiplexing is the
picks an ISN and synchronizes it with the
delivering of received segments to the
Client. At last, the Client acknowledges the
correct application layer processes at the
servers ISN.
recipients end using UDP. Error checking is
162. Which of the following is false with done through checksum in UDP.
respect to UDP?
165. What is the main advantage of UDP?
a) Connection-oriented
a) More overload
b) Unreliable
b) Reliable
c) Transport layer protocol
c) Low overhead
d) Low overhead
d) Fast
Answer: a
Answer: c
Explanation: UDP is an unreliable,
Explanation: As UDP does not provide
connectionless transport layer protocol that
assurance of delivery of packet, reliability
provides message-based data transmission.
and other services, the overhead taken to
TCP is an example of connection-oriented
provide these services is reduced in UDP’s
protocols.

33
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

operation. Thus, UDP provides low port numbers are short-lived port numbers
overhead, and higher speed. which can be used for clients in a UDP
system where there are temporary clients
166. Port number used by Network Time
all the time.
Protocol (NTP) with UDP is ________
a) 161 169. “Total length” field in UDP packet
b) 123 header is the length of _________
c) 162 a) Only UDP header
d) 124 b) Only data
c) Only checksum
Answer: b
d) UDP header plus data
Explanation: The Network Time Protocol is a
clock synchronization network protocol Answer: d
implemented by using UDP port number Explanation: Total length is the 16 bit field
123 to send and receive time stamps. which contains the length of UDP header
and the data. The maximum value of the
167. What is the header size of a UDP
Total length field and the maximum size of
packet?
a UDP datagram is 65,535 bytes (8 byte
a) 8 bytes
header + 65,527 bytes of data).
b) 8 bits
c) 16 bytes 170. Which is the correct expression for the
d) 124 bytes length of UDP datagram?
a) UDP length = IP length – IP header’s
Answer: a
length
Explanation: The fixed size of the UDP
b) UDP length = UDP length – UDP header’s
packet header is 8 bytes. It contains four
length
two-byte fields: Source port address,
c) UDP length = IP length + IP header’s
Destination port address, Length of packet,
length
and checksum.
d) UDP length = UDP length + UDP header’s
168. The port number is “ephemeral port length
number”, if the source host is _______
Answer: a
a) NTP
Explanation: A user datagram is
b) Echo
encapsulated in an IP datagram. There is a
c) Server
field in the IP header that defines the total
d) Client
length of the IP packet. There is another
Answer: d field in the IP header that defines the length
Explanation: Port numbers from 1025 to of the header. So if we subtract the length
5000 are used as ephemeral port numbers of the IP header that is encapsulated in the
in Windows Operating System. Ephemeral
34
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

IP packet, we get the length of UDP Answer: c

datagram. Explanation: Open loop congestion control
techniques are used to prevent congestion
171. The ______ field is used to detect
before it even happens by enforcing certain
errors over the entire user datagram.
policies. Retransmission policy, window
a) udp header
policy and acknowledgement policy are
b) checksum
some policies that might be enforced.
c) source port
d) destination port 174. Retransmission of packets must not be
done when _______
Answer: b
a) Packet is lost
Explanation: Checksum field is used to
b) Packet is corrupted
detect errors over the entire user datagram.
c) Packet is needed
Though it is not as efficient as CRC which is
d) Packet is error-free
used in TCP, it gets the job done for the
UDP datagram as UDP doesn’t have to Answer: d
ensure the delivery of the packet. Explanation: Retransmission refers to the
sender having to resend the packet to the
172. Two broad categories of congestion
receiver. It needs to be done only when
control are
some anomaly occurs with the packet like
a) Open-loop and Closed-loop
when the packet is lost or corrupted.
b) Open-control and Closed-control
c) Active control and Passive control 175. In Go-Back-N window, when the timer
d) Active loop and Passive loop of the packet times out, several packets
have to be resent even some may have
Answer: a
arrived safe. Whereas in Selective Repeat
Explanation: Open loop congestion control
window, the sender resends ___________
techniques are used to prevent congestion
a) Packet which are not lost
before it even happens by enforcing certain
b) Only those packets which are lost or
policies. Closed loop congestion control
corrupted
techniques are used to treat congestion
c) Packet from starting
after it has happened.
d) All the packets
173. In open-loop control, policies are
Answer: b
applied to __________
Explanation: In Selective Repeat, the sender
a) Remove after congestion occurs
side uses a searching algorithm to find the
b) Remove after sometime
packets which need to be retransmitted
c) Prevent before congestion occurs
based on the negative acknowledgements
d) Prevent before sending packets
received and then resends only those
packets thus saving bandwidth.

35
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

176. A piece of icon or image on a web page internet

associated with another webpage is called d) all of the mentioned
______
Answer: d
a) url
Explanation: A web browser is an
b) hyperlink
application program that is used to access
c) plugin
the World Wide Web resources,
d) extension
applications and websites. Some examples
Answer: b of web browsers are Google Chrome,
Explanation: URLs are locators for resources Internet Explorer and Safari.
present on the World Wide Web. A plugin
179. Common gateway interface is used to
provides extra functionality to the
_______
webpage. An extension provides
a) generate executable files from web
modification allowance for the core
content by web server
functionality of a webpage. Hyperlink is
b) generate web pages
piece of icon or image on a web page
c) stream videos
associated with another webpage.
d) download media files
177. Dynamic web page ______
Answer: a
a) is same every time whenever it displays
Explanation: CGI is an interface through
b) generates on demand by a program or a
servers can run execute console-based
request from browser
executable files on a web server that
c) both is same every time whenever it
generates dynamic web pages. A CGI script
displays and generates on demand by a
executes only when a request is made. The
program or a request from browser
script then generates HTML.
d) is different always in a predefined order
180. URL stands for ________
Answer: b
a) unique reference label
Explanation: A dynamic web page provides
b) uniform reference label
different content every time the user opens
c) uniform resource locator
it based on some events like new additions
d) unique resource locator
or time of the day. Languages such as
JavaScript are used to respond to client-side Answer: c
events while languages such as PHP as used Explanation: The Uniform Resource Locator
to respond to server-side events. is a locator for the resource to be located by
HTTP on the World Wide Web. The URL is
178. What is a web browser?
derived from the Uniform Resource
a) a program that can display a web page
Identifier.
b) a program used to view html documents
c) it enables user to access the resources of

36
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

181. A web cookie is a small piece of data c) JSP

that is _______ d) PHP
a) sent from a website and stored in user’s
Answer: a
web browser while a user is browsing a
Explanation: VBScript is a general-purpose,
website
lightweight and active scripting language
b) sent from user and stored in the server
which can be used on Microsoft Visual
while a user is browsing a website
Basic. It was first released in 1996.
c) sent from root server to all servers
d) sent from the root server to other root 184. What is document object model
servers (DOM)?
a) convention for representing and
Answer: a
interacting with objects in html documents
Explanation: A web cookie is a small piece
b) application programming interface
of data sent from a website and stored in
c) hierarchy of objects in ASP.NET
user’s web browser while a user is browsing
d) scripting language
the website and is used to remember
stateful information about the user’s Answer: a
operations on the website. This can help Explanation: DOM is a hierarchical model
the website provide a better browsing i.e. a tree used to represent an HTML or
experience to the user. XML document. Every node of the tree an
object that represents a part of the
182. Which one of the following is not used
document.
to generate dynamic web pages?
a) PHP 185. AJAX stands for _______
b) ASP.NET a) asynchronous javascript and xml
c) JSP b) advanced JSP and xml
d) CSS c) asynchronous JSP and xml
d) advanced javascript and xml
Answer: d
Explanation: CSS alone cannot be used to Answer: a
generate dynamic web pages as it does not Explanation: AJAX is a group of technologies
provide many event handling functions. It that works on the client-side to create
can be used along with JavaScript to asynchronous web applications. It is used to
generate dynamic web pages which are modify only a part of a webpage and not
visually compelling. the whole webpage whenever some event
occurs.
183. An alternative to JavaScript on
windows platform is _______ 186. Which of the following is not
a) VBScript applicable for IP?
b) ASP.NET a) Error reporting
37
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

b) Handle addressing conventions datagram is processed by a router. When

c) Datagram format the value is 0, the packet is automatically
d) Packet handling conventions destroyed.
Answer: a
189. If the value in protocol field is 17, the
Explanation: The Internet Protocol is the
transport layer protocol used is
networking protocol which establishes the
_____________
internet by relaying datagrams across
a) TCP
network boundaries. ICMP is a supporting
b) UDP
protocol for IP which handles the Error
c) ICMP
Reporting functionality.
d) IGMP
187. Which of the following field in IPv4
Answer: b
datagram is not related to fragmentation?
Explanation: The protocol field enables the
a) Flags
demultiplexing feature so that the IP
b) Offset
protocol can be used to carry payloads of
c) TOS
more than one protocol type. Its most used
d) Identifier
values are 17 and 6 for UDP and TCP
Answer: c respectively. ICMP and IGMP are network
Explanation: TOS-type of service identifies layer protocols.
the type of packets. It is not related to
190. The data field cannot carry which of
fragmentation but is used to request
the following?
specific treatment such as high throughput,
a) TCP segment
high reliability or low latency for the IP
b) UDP segment
packet depending upon the type of service
c) ICMP messages
it belongs to.
d) SMTP messages
188. The TTL field has value 10. How many
Answer: c
routers (max) can process this datagram?
Explanation: Data field usually has transport
a) 11
layer segments, but it can also carry ICMP
b) 5
messages. SMTP is an application layer
c) 10
protocol. First it must go through the
d) 1
transport layer to be converted into TCP
Answer: c segments and then it can be inserted into IP
Explanation: TTL stands for Time to Live. packets.
This field specifies the life of the IP packet
191. What should be the flag value to
based on the number of hops it makes
indicate the last fragment?
(Number of routers it goes through). TTL
a) 0
field is decremented by one each time the

38
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

b) 1 194. Which field helps to check

c) TTl value rearrangement of the fragments?
d) Protocol field value a) offset
b) flag
Answer: a
c) ttl
Explanation: The Flag field in the IP header
d) identifer
is used to control and identify the
fragments. It contains three bits: reserved, Answer: a
don’t fragment and more fragments. If the Explanation: The Fragment Offset field
more fragments bit is 0, it means that the specifies where the fragment fits in the
fragment is the last fragment. original datagram. The offset of the first
fragment will always be 0. The size of the
192. Which of these is not applicable for IP
field (13 bits) is 3-bits shorter than the size
protocol?
of the total length field (16 bits).
a) is connectionless
b) offer reliable service 195. Which of these is not applicable for IP
c) offer unreliable service protocol?
d) does not offer error reporting a) Connectionless
b) Offer reliable service
Answer: b
c) Offer unreliable service
Explanation: IP does not provide reliable
d) Does not offer error reporting
delivery service for the data. It’s dependent
upon the transport layer protocols like TCP Answer: b
to offer reliability. Explanation: IP does not provide reliable
delivery service for the data. It’s dependent
193. Which of the following demerits does
upon the transport layer protocols like TCP
Fragmentation have?
to offer reliability.
a) complicates routers
b) open to DOS attack 196. Which of the following demerits does
c) overlapping of fragments. Fragmentation have?
d) all of the mentioned a) Complicates routers
b) Open to DOS attack
Answer: d
c) Overlapping of fragments
Explanation: Fragmentation makes the
d) All of the mentioned
implementation of the IP protocol complex
and can also be exploited by attackers to Answer: d
create a DOS attack such as a teardrop Explanation: Fragmentation makes the
attack. Fragmentation won’t be required if implementation of the IP protocol complex
the transport layer protocols perform wise and can also be exploited by attackers to
segmentation. create a DOS attack such as a teardrop

39
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

attack. Fragmentation won’t be required if Answer: a

the transport layer protocols perform wise Explanation: Classful addressing is replaced
segmentation. with classless addressing as a large ratio of
the available addresses in a class in calssful
197. Which field helps to check
addressing is wasted. In classless
rearrangement of the fragments?
addressing, one can reserve the number of
a) Offset
IP addresses required by modifying the
b) Flag
CIDR value and make sure that not many
c) TTL
addresses are wasted.
d) Identifier
200. In virtual circuit network each packet
Answer: a
contains ___________
Explanation: The Fragment Offset field
a) full source and destination address
specifies where the fragment fits in the
b) a short VC number
original datagram. The offset of the first
c) only source address
fragment will always be 0. The size of the
d) only destination address
field (13 bits) is 3-bits shorter than the size
of the total length field (16 bits). Answer: b
Explanation: A short VC number also called
198. In classless addressing, there are no
as VCID (virtual circuit identifier) is a type of
classes but addresses are still granted in
identifier which is used to distinguish
______
between several virtual circuits in a
a) IPs
connection oriented circuit switched
b) Blocks
network. Each virtual circuit is used to
c) Codes
transfer data over a larger packet switched
d) Sizes
network.
Answer: b
201. Which of the following routing
Explanation: In classless addressing, there
algorithms can be used for network layer
are no classes but addresses are still
design?
granted in blocks. The total number of
a) shortest path algorithm
addresses in a block of classless IP
b) distance vector routing
addresses = 2(32 – CIDR_value).
c) link state routing
199. In IPv4 Addresses, classful addressing d) all of the mentioned
is replaced with ________
Answer: d
a) Classless Addressing
Explanation: The routing algorithm is what
b) Classful Addressing
decides where a packet should go next.
c) Classful Advertising
There are several routing techniques like
d) Classless Advertising
shortest path algorithm, static and dynamic

40
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

routing, decentralized routing, distance 204. User datagram protocol is called

vector routing, link state routing, connectionless because _____________
Hierarchical routing etc. The routing a) all UDP packets are treated
algorithms go hand in hand with the independently by transport layer
operations of all the routers in the b) it sends data as a stream of related
networks. The routers are the main packets
participants in these algorithms. c) it is received in the same order as sent
order
202. Transport layer aggregates data from
d) it sends data very quickly
different applications into a single stream
before passing it to ____________ Answer: a
a) network layer Explanation: UDP is an alternative for TCP
b) data link layer and it is used for those purposes where
c) application layer speed matters most whereas loss of data is
d) physical layer not a problem. UDP is connectionless
whereas TCP is connection oriented.
Answer: a
Explanation: The flow of data in the OSI 205. Transmission control protocol
model flows in following manner ___________
Application -> Presentation -> Session -> a) is a connection-oriented protocol
Transport -> Network -> Data Link -> b) uses a three way handshake to establish
Physical. Each and every layer has its own a connection
set of functions and protocols to ensure c) receives data from application as a single
efficient network performance. stream
d) all of the mentioned
203. Which of the following are transport
layer protocols used in networking? Answer: d
a) TCP and FTP Explanation: TCP provides reliable and
b) UDP and HTTP ordered delivery of a stream of bytes
c) TCP and UDP between hosts communicating via an IP
d) HTTP and FTP network. Major internet applications like
www, email, file transfer etc rely on TCP.
Answer: c
TCP is connection oriented and it is
Explanation: Both TCP and UDP are
optimized for accurate delivery rather than
transport layer protocol in networking. TCP
timely delivery.
is an abbreviation for Transmission Control
Protocol and UDP is an abbreviation for 206. An endpoint of an inter-process
User Datagram Protocol. TCP is connection communication flow across a computer
oriented whereas UDP is connectionless. network is called __________
a) socket

41
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

b) pipe but all the computers are connected to a

c) port central hub. Every message sent from a
d) machine source computer goes through the hub and
the hub then forwards the message only to
Answer: a
the intended destination computer.
Explanation: Socket is one end point in a
two way communication link in the 209. _______ topology requires a
network. TCP layer can identify the multipoint connection.
application that data is destined to be sent a) Star
by using the port number that is bound to b) Mesh
socket. c) Ring
d) Bus
207. Physical or logical arrangement of
network is __________ Answer: d
a) Topology Explanation: In bus topology, there is a
b) Routing single cable to which all the network nodes
c) Networking are connected. So whenever a node tries to
d) Control send a message or data to other nodes, this
data passes through all other nodes in the
Answer: a
network through the cable. It is really
Explanation: Topology in networks is the
simple to install but it’s not secure enough
structure or pattern in which each and
to be used in most of the computer
every node in the network is connected.
network applications.
There are many topologies in networking
like bus, tree, ring, star, mesh, and hybrid 210. Data communication system spanning
topology. There is no particular best states, countries, or the whole world is
topology and a suitable topology can be ________
chosen based on the kind of application of a) LAN
the network . b) WAN
c) MAN
208. Which network topology requires a
d) PAN
central controller or hub?
a) Star Answer: b
b) Mesh Explanation: WAN is the abbreviation for
c) Ring Wide Area Network. This network extends
d) Bus over a large geographical area. WANs are
used to connect cities, states or even
Answer: a
countries. A wireless connection is required
Explanation: In star topology, no computer
to build a WAN. The best example of WAN
is connected to another computer directly
is the Internet.

42
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

210. Data communication system within a Time division multiplexing. It is technique

building or campus is________ for combining several low rate channels to a
a) LAN single high rate channel. For a certain time
b) WAN slot, the several channels could use the
c) MAN maximum bandwidth. Each channel is
d) PAN inactive for a period of time too. Some
other multiplexing techniques are
Answer: a
Frequency division multiplexing and Phase
Explanation: LAN is an abbreviation for
division multiplexing.
Local Area Network. This network
interconnects computers in a small area 213. _____ is the multiplexing technique
such as schools, offices, residence etc. It is that shifts each signal to a different carrier
the most versatile kind of data frequency.
communication system where most of the a) FDM
computer network concepts can be visibly b) TDM
used. c) Both FDM & TDM
d) PDM
211. WAN stands for __________
a) World area network Answer: a
b) Wide area network Explanation: FDM is an abbreviation for
c) Web area network Frequency Division Multiplexing. This
d) Web access network technique is used when the bandwidth of
the channel is greater than the combined
Answer: b
bandwidth of all the signals which are to be
Explanation: WAN is the abbreviation for
transmitted. The channel is active at all
Wide Area Network. This network extends
times unless a collision occurs with another
over a large geographical area. These are
channel trying to use the same frequency.
used to connect cities, states or even
Some other multiplexing techniques are
countries. They can be connected through
Time division multiplexing and Phase
leased lines or satellites.
division multiplexing.
212. In TDM, slots are further divided into
214. The sharing of a medium and its link by
__________
two or more devices is called _________
a) Seconds
a) Fully duplexing
b) Frames
b) Multiplexing
c) Packets
c) Micropleixng
d) Bits
d) Duplexing
Answer: b
Answer: b
Explanation: TDM is the abbreviation for
Explanation: Multiplexing is a method using

43
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

which one can send multiples signals slots.

through a shared medium at the same time. a) n
This helps in using less resources and thus b) n/2
saving the cost of sending messages. c) n*2
d) 2n
215. Multiplexing is used in _______
a) Packet switching Answer: a
b) Circuit switching Explanation: In TDM, the total unit of time
c) Data switching is divided equally among all the signal
d) Packet & Circuit switching sources and each and every source has
access to the complete channel bandwidth
Answer: b
during its allotted time slot. When the time
Explanation: Circuit switching is a switching
slot of the source is not active, it remains
method by which one can obtain a physical
idle and waits for its slot to begin.
path between end points. Circuit switching
method is also called a connection oriented 218. If link transmits 4000frames per
network. Two nodes must be physically and second, and each slot has 8 bits, the
logically connected to each other to create transmission rate of circuit this TDM is
a circuit switching network. _________
a) 32kbps
216. Which multiplexing technique used to
b) 500bps
transmit digital signals?
c) 500kbps
a) FDM
d) 32bps
b) TDM
c) WDM Answer: a
d) FDM & WDM Explanation: Transmission rate= frame rate
* number of bits in a slot.
Answer: b
Given: Frame rate = 4000/sec and number
Explanation: TDM abbreviation for Time
of bits in slot = 8
Division Multiplexing is a method used for
Thus, Transmission rate = (4000 * 8) bps
digital signals. Whereas FDM and WDM
= 32000bps
abbreviation for Frequency Division
= 32kbps
Multiplexing, and Wavelength Division
Multiplexing, are used for analog signals. 219. The state when dedicated signals are
TDM is used in applications like ISDN idle are called __________
(Integrated Services Digital Network) and a) Death period
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). b) Poison period
c) Silent period
217. If there are n signal sources of same
d) Stop period
data rate, then the TDM link has _______

44
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: c always be greater than the sum of

Explanation: There are instances when transmission rates of the single sources.
connection between two endpoints has This happens because the transmission rate
been established, but no communication or is provided to each source only for a small
transfer of messages occurs. This period of period of time.
time is called silent period. The silent period
222. In TDM, slots are further divided into
ends when either of the two endpoints
_________
starts the communication.
a) Seconds
220. Multiplexing provides _________ b) Frames
a) Efficiency c) Packets
b) Privacy d) Bits
c) Anti jamming
Answer: b
d) Both Efficiency & Privacy
Explanation: TDM is the abbreviation for
Answer: d Time division multiplexing. It is technique
Explanation: Multiplexing helps us to for combining several low rate channels to a
transfer our messages over a shared single high rate channel. For a certain time
channel. This brings up the issue of privacy slot, the several channels could use the
and efficiency. Fortunately, Multiplexing maximum bandwidth. Each channel is
has high efficiency and high privacy when inactive for a period of time too. Some
implemented because in the other multiplexing techniques are
implementation, the transport layer of the Frequency division multiplexing and Phase
OSI network model handles the function of division multiplexing.
multiplexing through interfaces called ports
223. The attacker using a network of
which provide the required efficiency and
compromised devices is known as
privacy.
_____________
221. In TDM, the transmission rate of a a) Internet
multiplexed path is always _______ the sum b) Botnet
of the transmission rates of the signal c) Telnet
sources. d) D-net
a) Greater than
Answer: b
b) Lesser than
Explanation: Botnet is a network of
c) Equal to
compromised devices used by the attacker
d) Equal to or greater than
without the owner’s knowledge to perform
Answer: a unethical activities such as spamming. The
Explanation: In TDM the transmission rate attacker usually uses the least secure
provided by the path that is multiplexed will devices to create the botnet.

45
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

224. Which of the following is a form of DoS and makes sure that the victim can’t use
attack? any bandwidth. In UDP flooding, too many
a) Vulnerability attack UDP packets are sent by the attacker to the
b) Bandwidth flooding victim at random ports.
c) Connection flooding
226. Which of this is not a guided media?
d) All of the mentioned
a) Fiber optical cable
Answer: d b) Coaxial cable
Explanation: In a DoS attack, the attacker c) Wireless LAN
won’t let the victims access the network by d) Copper wire
using a certain method that ensures that an
Answer: c
essential network resource is unavailable to
Explanation: Wireless LAN is unguided
the victim. In vulnerability attack, the
media.
attacker exploits any obvious vulnerable
entity in the network to deny the victim 227. UTP is commonly used in __________
access into the network. In bandwidth a) DSL
flooding, the attacker floods the victim with b) FTTP
a huge flow of packets and uses up all the c) HTTP
bandwidth. In connection flooding, the d) None of the mentioned
attacker floods the victim network with a
huge number of connections, so that, no Answer: a
other machine can connect to it. Explanation: Unshielded twisted pair(UTP)
is commonly used in home access.
225. The DoS attack, in which the attacker
establishes a large number of half-open or 228. A local telephone network is an
fully open TCP connections at the target example of a _______ network.
host is ________ a) Packet switched
a) Vulnerability attack b) Circuit switched
b) Bandwidth flooding c) Bit switched
c) Connection flooding d) Line switched
d) UDP flooding
Answer: b
Answer: c Explanation: Circuit switching is connection
Explanation: In Vulnerability attack, the oriented switching technique, whereas in
attacker exploits the vulnerable control the case of packet switching, it is
points of the network to deny access to the connectionless. Circuit switching is
victims. In Bandwidth flooding, the attacker implemented in the Physical layer, whereas
intentionally uses up all the bandwidth by packet switching is implemented in the
flooding the victim with a deluge of packets Network layer. Internet too is based on the
concept of circuit switching.
46
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

229. Most packet switches use this principle c) Line switching and bit switching
____________ d) Packet switching and Circuit switching
a) Stop and wait
Answer: d
b) Store and forward
Explanation: Packet switching and Circuit
c) Store and wait
switching are two different types of
d) Stop and forward
switching methods used to connect the
Answer: b multiple communicating devices with one
Explanation: The packet switch will not another. Packet switching is used in
transmit the first bit to outbound link until conventional LAN systems and circuit
it receives the entire packet. If the entire switching is used in telephonic systems.
packet is not received and the time-out
232. The required resources for
period expires, the packet switch will
communication between end systems are
inform the sender to resend the part of
reserved for the duration of the session
packet or the entire packet based on the
between end systems in ________ method.
algorithm being used.
a) Packet switching
230. If there are N routers from source to b) Circuit switching
destination, the total end to end delay in c) Line switching
sending packet P(L-> number of bits in the d) Frequency switching
packet R-> transmission rate) is equal to
Answer: b
______________
Explanation: In circuit switching, a physical
a) N
path between the sender and receiver is
b) (N*L)/R
established. This path is maintained until
c) (2N*L)/R
the connection is needed. Circuit switching
d) L/R
is implemented in the Physical layer and is
Answer: b used in telephonic systems.
Explanation: The equation to find the end to
233. As the resources are reserved between
end delay when no. of bits, transmission
two communicating end systems in circuit
rate and no. of routers is given by (N*L)/R.
switching, ___________ is achieved.
The total end to end delay, that is, nodal
a) authentication
delay is the sum of all, the processing delay,
b) guaranteed constant rate
queuing delay, transmission delay and
c) reliability
propagation delay.
d) store and forward
231. What are the Methods to move data
Answer: b
through a network of links and switches?
Explanation: Circuit switching is connection
a) Packet switching and Line switching
oriented and is always implemented in the
b) Circuit switching and Line switching

47
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

physical layer. Once a path is set, all 237. Application developer has permission
transmission occurs through the same path. to decide the following on transport layer
It is used since the early times in telephonic side
systems. a) Transport layer protocol
b) Maximum buffer size
234. Which is not a application layer
c) Both Transport layer protocol and
protocol?
Maximum buffer size
a) HTTP
d) None of the mentioned
b) SMTP
c) FTP Answer: c
d) TCP Explanation: Application layer provides the
interface between applications and the
Answer: d
network. So application developer can
Explanation: TCP is transport layer protocol.
decide what transport layer to use and
235. The packet of information at the what should be its maximum buffer size.
application layer is called __________
238. Application layer offers _______
a) Packet
service.
b) Message
a) End to end
c) Segment
b) Process to process
d) Frame
c) Both End to end and Process to process
Answer: b d) None of the mentioned
Explanation: For Application, Presentation
Answer: a
and Session layers there is no data format
Explanation: End to End service is provided
for message. Message is message as such in
in the application layer. Whereas process to
these three layers. But when it comes to
process service is provided at the transport
Transport, Network, Data and Physical layer
layer.
they have data in format of segments,
packets, frames and bits respectively. 239. E-mail is _________
a) Loss-tolerant application
236. Which one of the following is an
b) Bandwidth-sensitive application
architecture paradigms?
c) Elastic application
a) Peer to peer
d) None of the mentioned
b) Client-server
c) HTTP Answer: c
d) Both Peer-to-Peer & Client-Server Explanation: Because it can work with
available throughput.
Answer: d
Explanation: HTTP is a protocol. 240. The ____________ translates internet
domain and host names to IP address.
48
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) domain name system the user interface, what message is to be

b) routing information protocol sent or the message format, syntax and
c) network time protocol semantics. A user has access to application
d) internet relay chat layer for sending and receiving messages.

Answer: a 243. Which one of the following protocol

Explanation: Domain name system is the delivers/stores mail to reciever server?
way the internet domain names are stored a) simple mail transfer protocol
and translated to IP addresses. The domain b) post office protocol
names systems matches the name of c) internet mail access protocol
website to ip addresses of the website. d) hypertext transfer protocol

241. Which one of the following allows a Answer: a

user at one site to establish a connection to Explanation: SMTP, abbreviation for Simple
another site and then pass keystrokes from Mail Transfer Protocol is an application
local host to remote host? layer protocol. A client who wishes to send
a) HTTP a mail creates a TCP connection to the
b) FTP SMTP server and then sends the mail across
c) Telnet the connection.
d) TCP
244. The ASCII encoding of binary data is
Answer: c called
Explanation: Telnet is used for accessing a) base 64 encoding
remote computers. Using telnet a user can b) base 32 encoding
access computer remotely. With Telnet, you c) base 16 encoding
can log on as a regular user with whatever d) base 8 encoding
privileges you may have been granted to
Answer: a
the specific application and data on the
Explanation: Base64 is used commonly in a
computer.
number of applications including email via
242. Application layer protocol defines MIME, and storing complex data in XML.
____________ Problem with sending normal binary data to
a) types of messages exchanged a network is that bits can be misinterpreted
b) message format, syntax and semantics by underlying protocols, produce incorrect
c) rules for when and how processes send data at receiving node and that is why we
and respond to messages use this code.
d) all of the mentioned
245. Which one of the following is an
Answer: d internet standard protocol for managing
Explanation: Application layer deals with devices on IP network?

49
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) dynamic host configuration protocol 248. Which one of the following is not
b) simple network management protocol correct?
c) internet message access protocol a) Application layer protocols are used by
d) media gateway protocol both source and destination devices during
a communication session
Answer: b
b) HTTP is a session layer protocol
Explanation: SNMP is a set of protocols for
c) TCP is an application layer protocol
network management and monitoring. This
d) All of the mentioned
protocol is included in the application layer.
SNMP uses 7 protocol data units. Answer: d
Explanation: HTTP is an application layer
246. Which one of the following is not an
protocol. Whereas TCP is a transport layer
application layer protocol?
protocol.
a) media gateway protocol
b) dynamic host configuration protocol 249. Discarding policy is mainly done by
c) resource reservation protocol _______
d) session initiation protocol a) Sender
b) Receiver
Answer: c
c) Router
Explanation: Resource reservation protocol
d) Switch
is used in transport layer. It is designed to
reserve resources across a network for Answer: c
quality of service using the integrated Explanation: The discarding policy adopted
services model. by the routers mainly states that the
routers discard sensitive or corrupted
247. Which protocol is a signaling
packets that it receives, thus controlling the
communication protocol used for
integrity of the packet flow. The discarding
controlling multimedia communication
policy is adopted as an open loop
sessions?
congestion control technique.
a) session initiation protocol
b) session modelling protocol 250. In classful addressing, a large part of
c) session maintenance protocol available addresses are ________
d) resource reservation protocol a) Organized
b) Blocked
Answer: a
c) Wasted
Explanation: SIP is a signaling protocol in
d) Communicated
which its function includes initiating,
maintaining and terminating real time Answer: c
sessions. SIP is used for signaling and Explanation: In classful addressing, a large
controlling multimedia sessions. part of available addresses are wasted. Thus

50
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

to solve this classful addressing is replaced 253. The size of an IP address in IPv6 is
with classless addressing where one can _________
reserve the number of IP addresses a) 4 bytes
required by modifying the CIDR value and b) 128 bits
make sure that not many addresses are c) 8 bytes
wasted. d) 100 bits

251. Network addresses are a very Answer: b

important concept of ________ Explanation: An IPv6 address is 128 bits
a) Routing long. Therefore, 2128 i.e. 340 undecillion
b) Mask addresses are possible in IPv6. IPv4 has only
c) IP Addressing 4 billion possible addresses and IPv6 would
d) Classless Addressing be a brilliant alternative in case IPv4 runs
out of possible new addresses.
Answer: c
Explanation: Network addresses are a very 254. The header length of an IPv6 datagram
important concept of IP addressing. The is ___________
first address in a block is used as network a) 10bytes
address that represents the organization. b) 25bytes
The network address can be found by c) 30bytes
AND’ing any address in the block or class by d) 40bytes
the default mask.
Answer: d
252. Which of this is not a class of IP Explanation: IPv6 datagram has fixed
address? header length of 40bytes, which results in
a) Class E faster processing of the datagram. There is
b) Class C one fixed header and optional headers
c) Class D which may or may not exist. The fixed
d) Class F header contains the mandatory essential
information about the packet while the
Answer: d
optional headers contain the optional “not
Explanation: Class F is not a class of IP
that necessary” information.
addressing. There are only five classes of IP
addresses: Class A (0.0.0.0 to 255. In the IPv6 header, the traffic class
127.255.255.255), Class B (128.0.0.0 to field is similar to which field in the IPv4
191.255.255.255), Class C (192.0.0.0 to header?
223.255.255.255), Class D (224.0.0.0 to a) Fragmentation field
239.255.255.255), and Class E (240.0.0.0 to b) Fast-switching
255.255.255.255). c) ToS field
d) Option field

51
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: c b) Implementing Ipv6 with 2 stacks

Explanation: The traffic class field is used to c) Node has both IPv4 and IPv6 support
specify the priority of the IP packet which is d) Implementing a MAC address with 2
a similar functionality to the Type of Service stacks
field in the IPv4 header. It’s an 8-bit field
Answer: c
and its values are not defined in the RFC
Explanation: Dual-stack is one of the
2460.
approaches used to support IPv6 in already
256. IPv6 does not use _________ type of existing systems. ISPs are using it as a
address. method to transfer from IPv4 to IPv6
a) broadcast completely eventually due to the lower
b) multicast number of possible available addresses in
c) anycast IPv4.
d) unicast
259. Suppose two IPv6 nodes want to
Answer: a interoperate using IPv6 datagrams, but they
Explanation: There is no concept of are connected to each other by intervening
broadcast address in IPv6. Instead, there is IPv4 routers. The best solution here is
an anycast address in IPv6 which allows ________
sending messages to a group of devices but a) Use dual-stack approach
not all devices in a network. Anycast b) Tunneling
address is not standardized in IPv4. c) No solution
d) Replace the system
257. Which among the following features is
present in IPv6 but not in IPv4? Answer: b
a) Fragmentation Explanation: The IPv4 routers can form a
b) Header checksum tunnel in which at the sender’s side, the
c) Options IPv6 datagram is encapsulated in to IPv4,
d) Anycast address and at the receiver’s side of the tunnel, the
IPv4 packet is stripped and the IPv6 packet
Answer: d
is sent to the receiver.
Explanation: There is an anycast address in
IPv6 which allows sending messages to a 260. Which layer is responsible for process-
group of devices but not all devices in a to-process delivery?
network. Anycast address is not a) Physical layer
standardized in IPv4. b) Network layer
c) Transport layer
258. Dual-stack approach refers to
d) Application layer
_________
a) Implementing Ipv4 with 2 stacks

52
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: c 263. In cryptography, what is cipher?

Explanation: The transport layer is a) algorithm for performing encryption and
responsible for process-to-process delivery, decryption
error control and flow control. It provides b) encrypted message
an interface for the implementation of c) both algorithm for performing encryption
process to process delivery through ports. and decryption and encrypted message
There are 65,535 port numbers. d) decrypted message

261. In process-to-process delivery, two Answer: a

processes communicate in which of the Explanation: Cipher is a method to
following methods? implement encryption and decryption of
a) Client/Server messages travelling in a network. It’s used
b) Source/Destination to increase the confidentiality of the
c) Message Transfer messages.
d) Peer to Peer
264. In asymmetric key cryptography, the
Answer: a private key is kept by __________
Explanation: The most common method a) sender
used for this communication is b) receiver
Client/Server. The client requests a service c) sender and receiver
through a particular port number to the d) all the connected devices to the network
port of the server using its socket address.
Answer: b
Then the server responds by giving the
Explanation: The private key is kept only by
requested service to the client port.
the receiver of the message. Its aim is to
262. Multiple processes on destinations at make sure that only the intended receiver
transport layer are identified by can decipher the message.
__________
265. Which one of the following algorithm
a) Mac address
is not used in asymmetric-key
b) Port number
cryptography?
c) Host number
a) rsa algorithm
d) Host address
b) diffie-hellman algorithm
Answer: b c) electronic code book algorithm
Explanation: Multiple processes on d) dsa algorithm
destinations are identified by a transport
Answer: c
layer address also called as port number.
Explanation: Electronic code book algorithm
The IP address along with the port number
is a block cipher method in which each
is called the socket address.
block of text in an encrypted message

53
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

corresponds to a block of data. It is not Answer: a

feasible for block sizes smaller than 40 bits. Explanation: Cryptanalysis is a field of study
in which a cryptographic scheme is
266. In cryptography, the order of the
intentionally tried to breach in order to find
letters in a message is rearranged by
flaws and insecurities. It is used to make
__________
sure that the scheme is least vulnerable to
a) transpositional ciphers
attacks.
b) substitution ciphers
c) both transpositional ciphers and 269. Which one of the following is a
substitution ciphers cryptographic protocol used to secure HTTP
d) quadratic ciphers connection?
a) stream control transmission protocol
Answer: a
(SCTP)
Explanation: In transposition ciphers, the
b) transport layer security (TLS)
order of letters in a plaintext message is
c) explicit congestion notification (ECN)
shuffled using a pre-defined method. Some
d) resource reservation protocol
of such ciphers are Rail fence cipher and
Columnar transposition. Answer: b
Explanation: TLS has strong message
267. What is data encryption standard
authentication and key-material generation
(DES)?
to prevent eavesdropping, tampering and
a) block cipher
message forgery. It has been used since the
b) stream cipher
year 1996.
c) bit cipher
d) byte cipher 270. Voice privacy in GSM cellular
telephone protocol is provided by _______
Answer: a
a) A5/2 cipher
Explanation: DES is a symmetric key block
b) b5/4 cipher
cipher in which the block size is 64 bits and
c) b5/6 cipher
the key size is 64 bits. It is vulnerable to
d) b5/8 cipher
some attacks and is hence not that
popularly used. Answer: a
Explanation: The A5/2 cipher was published
268. Cryptanalysis is used __________
in the year 1996 and was cryptanalysed in
a) to find some insecurity in a cryptographic
the same year within a month. It’s use was
scheme
discontinued from the year 2006 as it was
b) to increase the speed
really weak.
c) to encrypt the data
d) to make new ciphers 271. IPSec is designed to provide security at
the _________

54
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

a) transport layer Answer: a

b) network layer Explanation: Most network layer firewalls
c) application layer can operate as stateful or stateless
d) session layer firewalls, creating two subcategories of the
standard network layer firewall. Stateful
Answer: b
firewalls have the advantage of being able
Explanation: IPSec is a set of protocols used
to track packets over a period of time for
to provide authentication, data integrity
greater analysis and accuracy — but they
and confidentiality between two machines
require more memory and operate more
in an IP network. In the TCP/IP model, it
slowly. Stateless firewalls do not analyze
provides security at the IP layer i.e. the
past traffic and can be useful for systems
network layer.
where speed is more important than
272. Network layer firewall works as a security, or for systems that have very
________ specific and limited needs. For example, a
a) frame filter computer that only needs to connect to a
b) packet filter particular backup server does not need the
c) signal filter extra security of a stateful firewall.
d) content filter
274. WPA2 is used for security in _______
Answer: b a) ethernet
Explanation: As you know, firewalls are b) bluetooth
available as hardware appliances, as c) wi-fi
software-only, or a combination of the two. d) e-mail
In every case, the purpose of a firewall is to
Answer: c
isolate your trusted internal network (or
Explanation: WPA2 or WiFi Protected
your personal PC) from the dangers of
Access 2 is a security protocol used to
unknown resources on the Internet and
provide users and firms with strong data
other network connections that may be
security and protection for their wireless
harmful. The firewall prevents unauthorized
networks (WiFi) to give them confidence
access to your internal, trusted network
that only authorized users can access their
from outside threats.
network.
273. Network layer firewall has two sub-
275. An attempt to make a computer
categories called ____________
resource unavailable to its intended users is
a) stateful firewall and stateless firewall
called ______
b) bit oriented firewall and byte oriented
a) denial-of-service attack
firewall
b) virus attack
c) frame firewall and packet firewall
d) network firewall and data firewall

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) worms attack need not be in order as each datagram can

d) botnet process take different routes to the destination.

Answer: a 278. Packets in datagram switching are

Explanation: In a Denial of Service attack, referred to as ________
the attacker won’t let the victims access the a) Switches
network by using a certain method that b) Segments
ensures that an essential network resource c) Datagrams
is unavailable to the victim. The methods d) Data-packets
that the attacker can use are vulnerability
Answer: c
attack, bandwidth flooding and connection
Explanation: As the name suggests, in
flooding.
datagram switching packets are called as
276. Extensible authentication protocol is datagram. Each datagram/packet is treated
authentication framework frequently used as an individual entity and routed
in ______ independently through the network.
a) wired personal area network
279. Datagram networks mainly refers to
b) wireless networks
_________
c) wired local area network
a) Connection oriented networks
d) wired metropolitan area network
b) Connection less networks
Answer: b c) Telephone networks
Explanation: The Extensible Authentication d) Internetwork
Protocol (EAP) is an authentication protocol
Answer: b
used to connect a network node to the
Explanation: The switch does not keep the
Internet. It designed through extending the
information about the connection state,
methods used by the Point-to-Point
hence it is connection less. There is no need
Protocol for authentication.
for establishing a handshake to begin the
277. Datagram switching is done at which transmission in such networks.
layer of OSI model?
280. Datagrams are routed to their
a) Network layer
destinations with the help of ________
b) Physical layer
a) Switch table
c) Application layer
b) Segments table
d) Transport layer
c) Datagram table
Answer: a d) Routing table
Explanation: Datagram switching is
Answer: c
normally done at network layer. In
Explanation: Routing table is used to route
datagram switching, the datagram stream
the packets to their destinations. The
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

packet/datagram header contains the to track packets over a period of time for
destination header for the whole journey to greater analysis and accuracy — but they
source to the destination through the require more memory and operate more
routers. slowly. Stateless firewalls do not analyze
past traffic and can be useful for systems
281. Network layer firewall works as a
where speed is more important than
__________
security, or for systems that have very
a) Frame filter
specific and limited needs. For example, a
b) Packet filter
computer that only needs to connect to a
c) Content filter
particular backup server does not need the
d) Virus filter
extra security of a stateful firewall.
Answer: b
283. A firewall is installed at the point
Explanation: As you know, firewalls are
where the secure internal network and
available as hardware appliances, as
untrusted external network meet which is
software-only, or a combination of the two.
also known as __________
In every case, the purpose of a firewall is to
a) Chock point
isolate your trusted internal network (or
b) Meeting point
your personal PC) from the dangers of
c) Firewall point
unknown resources on the Internet and
d) Secure point
other network connections that may be
harmful. The firewall prevents unauthorized Answer: a
access to your internal, trusted network Explanation: A firewall can be a PC, a
from outside threats. router, a midrange, a mainframe, a UNIX
workstation, or a combination of these that
282. Network layer firewall has two sub-
determines which information or services
categories as _________
can be accessed from the outside and who
a) State full firewall and stateless firewall
is permitted to use the information and
b) Bit oriented firewall and byte oriented
services from outside. Generally, a firewall
firewall
is installed at the point where the secure
c) Frame firewall and packet firewall
internal network and untrusted external
d) Network layer firewall and session layer
network meet, which is also known as a
firewall
chokepoint.
Answer: a
284. Which of the following is / are the
Explanation: Most network layer firewalls
types of firewall?
can operate as stateful or stateless
a) Packet Filtering Firewall
firewalls, creating two subcategories of the
b) Dual Homed Gateway Firewall
standard network layer firewall. Stateful
firewalls have the advantage of being able

57
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) Screen Host Firewall Answer: c

d) Dual Host Firewall Explanation: In computing, a firewall is a
network security system that monitors and
Answer: a
controls the incoming and outgoing
Explanation: A firewall can be a PC, a
network traffic based on predetermined
midrange, a mainframe, a UNIX
security rules.[1] A firewall typically
workstation, a router, or combination of
establishes a barrier between a trusted,
these. Depending on the requirements, a
secure internal network and another
firewall can consist of one or more of the
outside network, such as the Internet, that
following functional components: Packet-
is assumed not to be secure or trusted.[2]
filtering router
Firewalls are often categorized as either
285. A proxy firewall filters at _________ network firewalls or host-based firewalls.
a) Physical layer
287. Complex networks today are made up
b) Data link layer
of hundreds and sometimes thousands of
c) Network layer
_________
d) Application layer
a) Documents
Answer: d b) Components
Explanation: The application firewall is c) Servers
typically built to control all network traffic d) Entities
on any layer up to the application layer. It is
Answer: b
able to control applications or services
Explanation: Complex networks today are
specifically, unlike a stateful network
made up of hundreds and sometimes
firewall, which is – without additional
thousands of components. For effective
software – unable to control network traffic
functioning of these thousands of
regarding a specific application. There are
components, good network management is
two primary categories of application
essential.
firewalls, network-based application
firewalls and host-based application 288. Performance management is closely
firewalls. related to _________
a) Proactive Fault Management
286. A packet filter firewall filters at
b) Fault management
__________
c) Reactive Fault Management
a) Physical layer
d) Preventive Fault Management
b) Data link layer
c) Network layer or Transport layer Answer: b
d) Application layer Explanation: Fault management is really
closely related to performance
management. It is important to ensure that

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

the network handles faults as effectively as a) device that allows wireless devices to
it handles it’s normal functioning to achieve connect to a wired network
better performance management. b) wireless devices itself
c) both device that allows wireless devices
289. Configuration management can be
to connect to a wired network and wireless
divided into two subsystems:
devices itself
reconfiguration and __________
d) all the nodes in the network
a) Documentation
b) Information Answer: a
c) Servers Explanation: Access point in a wireless
d) Entity network is any device that will allow the
wireless devices to a wired network. A
Answer: a
router is the best example of an Access
Explanation: The documentation subsystem
Point.
of configuration management handles the
log making and reporting functions of the 292. In wireless ad-hoc network _________
configuration management. It also reports a) access point is not required
the errors in the network caused by the b) access point is must
configuration’s failure. c) nodes are not required
d) all nodes are access points
290. In Network Management System, the
term that is responsible for controlling Answer: a
access to network based on predefined Explanation: An ad-hoc wireless network is
policy is called ___________ a decentralized kind of a wireless network.
a) Fault Management An access point is usually a central device
b) Secured Management and it would go against the rules of the ad-
c) Active Management hoc network to use one. Hence it is not
d) Security Management required.

Answer: d 293. Which multiple access technique is

Explanation: In Network Management used by IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless
System, the term that is responsible for LAN?
controlling access to the network based on a) CDMA
predefined policy is called security b) CSMA/CA
management. The security management c) ALOHA
ensures authentication, confidentiality and d) CSMA/CD
integrity in the network.
Answer: b
291. What is the access point (AP) in a Explanation: CSMA/CA stands for Carrier-
wireless LAN? sense multiple access/collision avoidance. It

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

is a multiple access protocol used by IEEE c) all access points

802.11 standard for wireless LAN. It’s based d) connected access points
on the principle of collision avoidance by
Answer: a
using different algorithms to avoid collisions
Explanation: The extended service set is a
between channels.
part of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN architecture
294. In wireless distribution system and is used to expand the range of the basic
__________ service set by allowing connection of
a) multiple access point are inter-connected multiple basic service sets.
with each other
297. Mostly ________ is used in wireless
b) there is no access point
LAN.
c) only one access point exists
a) time division multiplexing
d) access points are not required
b) orthogonal frequency division
Answer: a multiplexing
Explanation: A Wireless Distribution System c) space division multiplexing
allows the connection of multiple access d) channel division multiplexing
points together. It is used to expand a View Answer
wireless network to a larger network.
Answer: b
295. A wireless network interface controller Explanation: In orthogonal frequency
can work in _______ division multiplexing, digital data is encoded
a) infrastructure mode on multiple carrier frequencies. It is also
b) ad-hoc mode used in digital television and audio
c) both infrastructure mode and ad-hoc broadcasting in addition to Wireless LANs.
mode
298. Which one of the following event is not
d) WDS mode
possible in wireless LAN?
Answer: c a) collision detection
Explanation: A wireless network interface b) acknowledgement of data frames
controller works on the physical layer and c) multi-mode data transmission
the data link layer of the OSI model. d) connection to wired networks
Infrastructure mode WNIC needs access
Answer: a
point but in ad-hoc mode access point is not
Explanation: Collision detection is not
required.
possible in wireless LAN with no extensions.
296. In wireless network an extended Collision detection techniques for multiple
service set is a set of ________ access like CSMA/CD are used to detect
a) connected basic service sets collisions in Wireless LANs.
b) all stations

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

299. What is Wired Equivalent Privacy small networks using standardized

(WEP)? communication protocols.
a) security algorithm for ethernet
302. To join the internet, the computer has
b) security algorithm for wireless networks
to be connected to a _________
c) security algorithm for usb communication
a) internet architecture board
d) security algorithm for emails
b) internet society
Answer: b c) internet service provider
Explanation: WEP is a security algorithm for d) different computer
wireless network which intended to provide
Answer: c
data confidentiality comparable to that of
Explanation: The ISPs (Internet Service
traditional wired networks. It was
Providers) are the main agents through
introduced in 1997.
which every computer is connected to the
300. What is WPA? internet. They are licensed to allot public IP
a) wi-fi protected access addresses to its customers in order to
b) wired protected access connect them to the internet.
c) wired process access
303. Internet access by transmitting digital
d) wi-fi process access
data over the wires of a local telephone
Answer: a network is provided by _______
Explanation: WPA or WiFi Protected Access a) leased line
is a security protocol used to provide users b) digital subscriber line
and firms with strong data security and c) digital signal line
protection for their wireless networks d) digital leased line
(WiFi) to give them confidence that only
Answer: b
authorized users can access their network.
Explanation: DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is
301. What is internet? the technology designed to use the existing
a) a single network telephone lines to transport high-
b) a vast collection of different networks bandwidth data to service subscribers. DSL
c) interconnection of local area networks was used to allow the early users access to
d) interconnection of wide area networks the internet and it provides dedicated,
point-to-point, public network access.
Answer: b
Explanation: Internet is nothing but an 304. ISP exchanges internet traffic between
interconnected computer network their networks by __________
providing a variety of communication a) internet exchange point
facilities, consisting of a huge amount of b) subscriber end point

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) isp end point 307. Bluetooth uses __________

d) internet end point a) frequency hopping spread spectrum
b) orthogonal frequency division
Answer: a
multiplexing
Explanation: ISPs exchange internet traffic
c) time division multiplexing
between their networks by using Internet
d) channel division multiplexing
Exchange Points. ISPs and CDNs are
connected to each other at these physical Answer: a
locations are they help them provide better Explanation: Frequency hopping spread
service to their customers. spectrum is a method of transmitting radio
signals by rapidly changing the carrier
305. Which of the following protocols is
frequency and is controlled by the codes
used in the internet?
known to the sender and receiver only.
a) HTTP
b) DHCP 308. Which algorithm can be used to sign a
c) DNS message?
d) DNS, HTTP and DNS a) Public key algorithm
b) Private key algorithm
Answer: d
c) Public & Private key algorithm
Explanation: HTTP is used to browse all the
d) None of the mentioned
websites on the World Wide Web, DHCP is
used to allot IPs automatically to the users Answer: a
on the internet, and DNS is used to connect Explanation: Public key algorithms are used
the users to the host servers on the internet to sign a message and private key
based on the Domain Name. algorithms are used to encrypt the
messages.
306. Bluetooth is the wireless technology
for __________ 309. Private key algorithm is used for _____
a) local area network encryption and public key algorithm is used
b) personal area network for _____ encryption.
c) metropolitan area network a) Messages, session key
d) wide area network b) Session key, messages
c) Can be used for both
Answer: b
d) None of the mentioned
Explanation: Bluetooth is a wireless
technology used to create a wireless Answer: a
personal area network for data transfer up Explanation: Private key algorithm is used
to a distance of 10 meters. It operates on for encryption of messages and public key
2.45 GHz frequency band for transmission. algorithm is used for encryption of session
keys.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

310. In public key cryptosystem which is problems of the first cellular systems in
kept as public? Europe.
a) Encryption keys
313. Previously in 1980s, GSM stands for
b) Decryption keys
____________
c) Encryption & Decryption keys
a) Global system for mobile
d) None of the mentioned
b) Groupe special mobile
Answer: a c) Global special mobile
Explanation: In public key cryptosystem, the d) Groupe system mobile
encryption keys are kept as public where as
Answer: b
decryption keys are kept as secret.
Explanation: In the mid-1980s GSM was
311. In public key cryptosystem _____ keys called by the name Groupe special mobile.
are used for encryption and decryption. In 1992, GSM changed its name to Global
a) Same System for Mobile Communication for
b) Different marketing reasons.
c) Encryption Keys
314. Who sets the standards of GSM?
d) None of the mentioned
a) ITU
View Answer
b) AT & T
Answer: b c) ETSI
Explanation: In conventional cryptosystem, d) USDC
same keys are used for encryption and
Answer: c
decryption where as in public key
Explanation: The setting of standards for
cryptosystem different keys are used.
GSM is under the aegis of the European
312. Which of the following is the world’s Technical Standards Institute (ETSI). GSM
first cellular system to specify digital task was to specify a common mobile
modulation and network level architecture? communication system for Europe in the
a) GSM 900 MHZ band.
b) AMPS
315. Which of the following does not come
c) CDMA
under the teleservices of GSM?
d) IS-54
a) Standard mobile telephony
Answer: a b) Mobile originated traffic
Explanation: GSM was the world’s first c) Base originated traffic
cellular system to specify digital modulation d) Packet switched traffic
and level architectures and services. It is the
Answer: d
world’s most popular 2G technology. It was
Explanation: GSM services follow ISDN
developed to solve the fragmentation
guidelines and are classified as either
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

teleservices or data services. Teleservices Answer: b

include standard mobile telephony and Explanation: Like IS-136, IS-95 system was
mobile originated or base originated traffic. designed to be compatible with the existing
US analog cellular system (AMPS) frequency
316. Which of the following comes under
band. Hence, mobile and base stations can
supplementary ISDN services?
be economically produced for dual mode
a) Emergency calling
operation.
b) Packet switched protocols
c) Call diversion 319. Which of the following is used by IS-
d) Standard mobile telephony 95?
a) DSSS
Answer: c
b) FHSS
Explanation: Supplementary ISDN services
c) THSS
are digital in nature. They include call
d) Hybrid
diversion, closed user groups, and caller
identification, and are not available in Answer: a
analog mobile networks. Supplementary Explanation: IS-95 uses a direct sequence
services also include short messaging spread spectrum CDMA system. It allows
service (SMS). each user within a cell to use the same
radio channel, and users in adjacent cell
317. US digital cellular system based on
also use the same radio channel.
CDMA was standardized as ________
a) IS-54 320. GPRS and EDGE supports which 2G
b) IS-136 standard?
c) IS-95 a) GSM only
d) IS-76 b) IS-136 only
c) GSM and IS-136 both
Answer: c
d) PDC
Explanation: A US digital cellular system
based on CDMA was standardized as Answer: c
Interim Standard 95 (IS-95). It was Explanation: GPRS (General Packet Radio
standardized by US Telecommunication Service) network provides a packet network
Industry Association (TIA) and promised on dedicated GSM or IS-136 radio channels.
increased capacity. EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM
Evolution) is also developed keeping in
318. IS-95 was not compatible with existing
desire both GSM and IS-136 operators.
AMPS frequency band.
a) True 321. How is HSCSD different from GPRS?
b) False a) Infrastructure
b) Multiple Access Scheme

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) Modulation technique IM services

d) Switching Technique b) SIP stands for Secure Initiation Protocol
c) XMPP stands for Extensible Messaging
Answer: d
and Presence Protocol
Explanation: GPRS is a packet based
d) All of the mentioned
network. HSCSD dedicates circuit switched
channels to specific users whereas GPRS Answer: c
supports many more users, but in a bursty Explanation: SIP stands for Session Initiation
manner. Protocol.

322. What changes GPRS need to acquire 325. Which of the following protocol is
while upgrading itself from GSM? adopted for interoperability by top three IM
a) A whole new base station service providers?
b) New transceiver at base station a) SIP
c) New channel cards b) SIMPLE
d) New packet overlay including routers and c) XMPP
gateways d) IMPS

Answer: d Answer: b
Explanation: GPRS requires a GSM operator Explanation: They allow their users to
to install new routers and Internet connect with the other services’ public
gateways at the base station along with users for a fee.
new software upgrade. New base station RF
326. Which of the following systems allow
hardware is not required.
short text messages to be exchanged?
323. How many types of protocols are a) SMS
important for instant messaging? b) IMS
a) 2 c) JVS
b) 3 d) All of the mentioned
c) 4
Answer: a
d) All of the mentioned
Explanation: Twitter is described as the
Answer: b prototypical example of this type of service.
Explanation: In an effort to create an
327. Point out the correct statement.
interoperability standard between different
a) Aggregation also can be done within
IM clients, several instant messaging
software creating a custom Web page
protocols have been created.
b) The Add Stuff link in iGoogle takes you to
324. Point out the correct statement. the content management system
a) Every third-party IM clients aim to allow c) When you return to iGoogle, the feed
their users to connect to the different major appears within an Ajax frame that can be
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

moved around on the page or moved to vendors support OVF, notably VMware,
additional tabs that you can create Microsoft, Oracle, and Citrix
d) All of the mentioned d) All of the mentioned

Answer: d Answer: c
Explanation: iGoogle’s syndication Explanation: Efforts are underway to create
aggregation site is an example of a content file format standards for these types of
management system. objects that make the task easier.

328. _____ builds on the older concept of 331. Which of the following lets a Web
Internet chat to add a more immediate service advertise itself in terms of a
response to text messages between collection of endpoints?
individuals and groups. a) WSDL
a) VM b) VMc
b) IM c) SOAP
c) SM d) All of the mentioned
d) None of the mentioned
Answer: a
Answer: b Explanation: The most commonly used
Explanation: IM stands for instant model for discovery and description used
messaging. with SOAP messaging is the Web Services
Description Language (WSDL).
329. Which of the following is a virtual
machine technology now owned by Oracle 332. Which of the following is a
that can run various operating systems? specification for multicast discovery on a
a) Vmachines LAN?
b) VirtualBox a) WS-Agent
c) ThoughtPolice b) WS-Discovery
d) None of the mentioned c) WS-SOAP
d) All of the mentioned
Answer: b
Explanation: VirtualBox serves as a host for Answer: b
a variety of virtual appliances. Explanation: WS-Discovery stands for Web
Services Dynamic Discovery specification.
330. Point out the correct statement.
a) JumpIt is an open-source virtual 333. Which of the following content is
appliance installation and management allowed as per virtual appliance block
service diagram shown below?
b) Converting a virtual appliance from one
platform to another is easy proposition
c) Nearly all major virtualization platform
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: b
Explanation: SIMPLE is an open standard
protocol.

336. ______ offering provides the tools and

development environment to deploy
applications on another vendor’s
application.
a) PaaS
b) IaaS
a) Table
c) CaaS
b) Image
d) All of the mentioned
c) Documents
d) All of the mentioned Answer: b
Explanation: PaaS tool is a fully integrated
Answer: d
development environment.
Explanation: Content can be structured or
unstructured in virtual appliance. 337. Point out the correct statement.
a) Platforms cannot be based on specific
334. Point out the correct statement.
types of development languages,
a) WS-+ services carried over XML messages
application frameworks, or other constructs
using the SOAP protocol access remote
b) PaaS systems offer a way to create user
server applications
interfaces
b) REST stands for Representational State
c) In a CaaS model, customers may interact
Transfer
with the software to enter and retrieve data
c) A transaction following the rules of SOAP
d) All of the mentioned
is considered to be RESTful
d) All of the mentioned Answer: b
Explanation: PaaS systems support
Answer: b
standards such as HTML, JavaScript, or
Explanation: REST assigns a global identifier
other rich media technologies.
to a resource so there is a uniform method
for accessing information sources. 338. Which of the following is associated
with considerable vendor lock-in?
335. Which of the following is based on the
a) PaaS
IETF Session Initiation Protocol?
b) IaaS
a) WSDL
c) CaaS
b) SIMPLE
d) SaaS
c) SOAP
d) All of the mentioned Answer: a
Explanation: The difficulty with PaaS is that
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

it locks the developer (and the customer) is offering a complete solution to the
into a solution that is dependent upon the customer.
platform vendor.
342. Which of the following is the most
339. _________ serves as a PaaS vendor complete cloud computing service model?
within Google App Engine system. a) PaaS
a) Google b) IaaS
b) Amazon c) CaaS
c) Microsoft d) SaaS
d) All of the mentioned
Answer: d
Answer: a Explanation: The most complete cloud
Explanation: Google offers many of its Web computing service model is one in which
service applications to customers as part of the computing hardware and software, as
this service model. well as the solution itself, are provided by a
vendor as a complete service offering.
340. Point out the wrong statement.
a) The customer takes no responsibility for 343. Point out the correct statement.
maintaining the hardware, the software, or a) Platforms can be based on specific types
the development of the applications of development languages, application
b) The vendor is responsible for all the frameworks, or other constructs
operational aspects of the service b) SaaS is the cloud-based equivalent of
c) Google’s App Engine platform is IaaS shrink-wrapped software
offering c) Software as a Service (SaaS) may be
d) None of the mentioned succinctly described as software that is
deployed on a hosted service
Answer: c
d) All of the mentioned
Explanation: The customer is responsible
only for his interaction with the platform. Answer: d
Explanation: SaaS can be accessed globally
341. Which of the following can be
over the Internet, most often in a browser.
considered PaaS offering?
a) Google Maps 344. Which of the following aspect of the
b) Gmail service is abstracted away?
c) Google Earth a) Data escrow
d) All of the mentioned b) User Interaction
c) Adoption drivers
Answer: a
d) None of the mentioned
Explanation: The vendor of the PaaS
solution is in most cases the developer, who Answer: b
Explanation: With the exception of the user
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

interaction with the software, all other needs power to reach the computer
aspects of the service are abstracted away. memory.

345. Which of the following SaaS platform is 348. Storage devices like tertiary storage,
with an exposed API? magnetic disk comes under
a) salesforce.com a) Volatile storage
b) amazon.com b) Non-volatile storage
c) flipkart.com c) Stable storage
d) all of the mentioned d) Dynamic storage

Answer: a Answer: b
Explanation: SaaS does not necessarily Explanation: Information residing in
mean that the software is static or nonvolatile storage survives system crashes.
monolithic.
349. For a transaction to be durable, its
346. Point out the wrong statement. changes need to be written to ________
a) SaaS applications come in all shapes and storage.
sizes a) Volatile storage
b) Every computer user is familiar with SaaS b) Non-volatile storage
systems c) Stable storage
c) SaaS software is not customizable d) Dynamic storage
d) None of the mentioned
Answer: c
Answer: d Explanation: Similarly, for a transaction to
Explanation: Every computer user is familiar be atomic, log records need to be written to
with SaaS systems, which are either stable storage before any changes are made
replacements or substitutes for locally to the database on disk.
installed software.
350. The unit of storage that can store one
347. The storage structure which do not are more records in a hash file organization
survive system crashes are ______ are
a) Volatile storage a) Buckets
b) Non-volatile storage b) Disk pages
c) Stable storage c) Blocks
d) Dynamic storage d) Nodes

Answer: a Answer: a
Explanation: Volatile storage, is a computer Explanation: Buckets are used to store one
memory that requires power to maintain or more records in a hash file organization.
the stored information, in other words it

69
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

351. _________ allows us to control Things

electronic components d) Machine Things
a) RETful API
Answer: c
b) RESTful API
Explanation: The MQTT protocol is a
c) HTTP
machine to machine and Internet of thing
d) MQTT
connectivity protocol.
Answer: a
355. Which protocol is lightweight?
Explanation: RETful API that allows us to
a) MQTT
control electronic components connected
b) HTTP
to our Intel Galileo Gen 2 board through
c) CoAP
HTTP requests.
d) SPI
352. MQTT stands for _____________
Answer: a
a) MQ Telemetry Things
Explanation: MQTT is a lightweight protocol
b) MQ Transport Telemetry
that runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol and
c) MQ Transport Things
works with publish subscribe mechanism.
d) MQ Telemetry Transport
356. PubNub publishes and subscribes
Answer: d
_________ in order to send and receive
Explanation: MQTT was known as MQ
messages.
Telemetry Transport protocol. MQTT is a
a) Network
lightweight protocol that runs on top of the
b) Account
TCP/IP protocol.
c) Portal
353. MQTT is better than HTTP for sending d) Keys
and receiving data.
Answer: d
a) True
Explanation: It is necessary to generate our
b) False
PubNub publishes and subscribes keys in
Answer: a order to send and receive messages in the
Explanation: We want to send and receive network.
data in real time through internet and
357. By clicking which key the PubNub will
RESTful API is not the most appropriate
display public, subscribe, and secret keys.
option to do this. Instead, we will work on
a) Pane
MQTT which is lighter than HTTP.
b) Demo Keyset
354. MQTT is _________ protocol. c) Portal
a) Machine to Machine d) Network
b) Internet of Things
c) Machine to Machine and Internet of
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: b 360. Steganography follows the concept of

Explanation: Click on Demo keyset pane and security through obscurity.
PubNub will display public, subscribe, and a) True
secret keys. We must copy and paste each b) False
of these keys to use them in our code that
Answer: a
will publish messages and subscribe to
Explanation: Hiding of data within another
them.
data through obscurity is called
358. _____________ is another data hiding steganography. It is another data hiding
technique which can be used in conjunction technique which can be used in conjunction
with cryptography for the extra-secure with cryptography for an extra-secure
method of protecting data. method of protecting data.
a) Cryptography
361. The word ________________is a
b) Steganography
combination of the Greek words ‘steganos’
c) Tomography
which means “covered or concealed”, and
d) Chorography
‘graphein’ which means “writing”.
Answer: b a) Cryptography
Explanation: Steganography is the b) Tomography
technique of hiding data in another raw c) Steganography
data. Steganography is another data hiding d) Chorography
technique which can be used in conjunction
Answer: c
with cryptography for an extra-secure
Explanation: The word steganography is a
method of protecting data.
combination of the Greek words ‘steganos’
359. _____________ is hiding of data within which means “covered or concealed”, and
data, where we can hide images, text, and ‘graphein’ which means “writing”.
other messages within images, videos, Steganography is hiding of data within data,
music or recording files. where we can hide images, text, and other
a) Cryptography messages within images, videos, music or
b) Tomography recording files.
c) Steganography
362. A ________________ tool permits
d) Chorography
security professional or a hacker to embed
Answer: c hidden data within a carrier file like an
Explanation: Steganography helps in hiding image or video which can later be extracted
any form of data within data, where we can from them.
hide images, text, and other messages a) Cryptography
within images, videos, music or recording b) Tomography
files.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) Chorography 365. The FDMA channel carries

d) Steganography ____________ phone circuit at a time.
a) Ten
Answer: d
b) Two
Explanation: A steganography tool is a
c) One
software tool that permits a security
d) Several
professional or a hacker to embed hidden
data within a carrier file like an image or Answer: c
video which can later be extracted from Explanation: The FDMA channel carries one
them. phone circuit at a time. Each individual
band or channel is wide enough to
363. Frequency division multiple access
accommodate the signal spectra of the
(FDMA) assigns ______ channels to
transmissions to be propagated.
_______ users.
a) Individual, individual 366. If the FDMA channel is not in use, it
b) Many, individual can be used by other users.
c) Individual, many a) True
d) Many, many b) False

Answer: a Answer: b
Explanation: Frequency division multiple Explanation: If an FDMA channel is not in
access (FDMA) assigns individual channels use, it sits idle and cannot be used by other
to individual users. Each user is allocated a users to increase or share capacity. It is
unique frequency band or channel. These essentially a wasted resource.
channels are assigned on demand to users
367. TDMA systems transmit in a
who request service.
continuous way.
364. During the period of call, other users a) True
can share the same channel in FDMA. b) False
a) True
Answer: b
b) False
Explanation: TDMA systems transmit data in
Answer: b a buffer and burst method. Thus, the
Explanation: In FDMA systems, no other transmission for any user is not continuous.
user can share the same channel during the
368. Preamble contains __________
period of call. In FDD systems, the users are
a) Address
assigned a channel as a pair of frequencies;
b) Data
one is used for the forward channel while
c) Guard bits
the other frequency is used for the reverse
d) Trail bits
channel.

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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

Answer: a 371. Which of the following is used for

Explanation: TDMA frame is made up of a shaping the velocity of the satellite orbit?
preamble, an information message and the a) User segment
trail bits. In a TDMA frame, the preamble b) Control segment
contains the address and synchronization c) Ground segment
information that both the base station and d) Space segment
the subscribers use to identify each other.
Answer: b
369. __________ are utilized to allow Explanation: The entire process of GPS has
synchronization of the receivers between been categorized into user segment, control
different slots and frames. segment. These are allocated with a certain
a) Preamble part of the entire work. Control segment
b) Data helps me monitoring the shape and velocity
c) Guard bits of satellite orbits.
d) Trail bits
372. Which waveforms are also called as
Answer: c line codes?
Explanation: Guard times are utilized to a) PCM
allow synchronization of the receivers b) PAM
between different slots and frames. c) FM
TDMA/FDD systems intentionally induce d) AM
several time slots of delay between the
Answer: a
forward and reverse time slots for a
Explanation: When pulse modulation is
particular user.
applied to binary symbol we obtain pulse
370. Which of the following is not true for code modulated waveforms. These
TDMA? waveforms are also called as line codes.
a) Single carrier frequency for single user
373. When pulse code modulation is
b) Discontinuous data transmission
applied to non binary symbols we obtain
c) No requirement of duplexers
waveform called as
d) High transmission rates
a) PCM
Answer: a b) PAM
Explanation: TDMA share a single carrier c) M-ary
frequency with several users, where each d) line codes
user makes use of non-overlapping time
Answer: c
slots. The number of time slots per frame
Explanation: When pulse code modulation
depends on several factors, such as
is applied to binary symbols we get PCM
modulation technique, available bandwidth
waveforms and when it is applied to non
etc.

73
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

binary symbols we obtain M-ary 377. Window given the number of

waveforms. a) Bytes
b) Frames
374. First address in a block is used as
c) Bytes & Frames
network address that represents the
d) None of the mentioned
________
a) Class Network Answer: c
b) Entity Explanation: Window gives the number of
c) Organization frames or bytes that can be in transit
d) Codes unacknowledged.

Answer: c 378. Routing is

Explanation: First address in a block is used a) Static
as network address that represents the b) Dynamic
organization. The network address can be c) Static & Dynamic
found by AND’ing any address in the block d) None of the mentioned
by the default mask. The last address in a
Answer: c
block represents the broadcast address.
Explanation: Routing can be static and
375. Protocol is a set of dynamic.
a) Formats
379. Routing is performed only centrally.
b) Procedures
a) True
c) Formats & Procedures
b) False
d) None of the mentioned
Answer: a
Answer: c
Explanation: Routing is performed centrally
Explanation: Protocol is a set of procedures
and also in fully distributed way.
and formats that entities use to
communicate information. 380. Which is connection oriented and
which is connection-less?
376. The time required to transmit frame
a) Datagrams, virtual circuits
depends on
b) Virtual circuits, datagrams
a) Frame size
c) Datagrams
b) Channel capacity
d) None of the mentioned
c) Frame size & Channel capacity
d) None of the mentioned Answer: b
Explanation: Datagram is connection-less
Answer: c
and virtual circuits are connection oriented.
Explanation: The time to transmit frame is
given by the ratio of frame size and channel
capacity.
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Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

381. Which uses UDP? Answer: d

a) Echo Explanation: Q series tells about signalling.
b) Time
385. Which of the following module feature
c) Domain name server
is provided by Drupal CMS?
d) All of the mentioned
a) Traffic management
Answer: d b) OpenID authentication
Explanation: The protocols using UDP are c) User interface creation tools
echo, time, domain name server, network d) All of the mentioned
file system etc.
Answer: d
382. Which uses TCP? Explanation: The Drupal core by itself
a) Simple mail transfer protocol contains a number of modules.
b) Simple network management protocol
386. Which of the following programming
c) Simple mail transfer & network
language solves problems by acting on
management protocol
constraints and inputs?
d) None of the mentioned
a) 3GL
Answer: a b) 4GL
Explanation: Some of the protocols using c) 5GL
TCP are http, telnet, file transfer protocol, d) None of the mentioned
simple mail transfer protocol etc.
Answer: c
383. Which tells about low level Explanation: Force.com uses a 4GL
transmission and framing? programming language environment.
a) V series
387. ___________ PaaS application delivery
b) X series
platform creates SOA applications that work
c) G series
on several different IaaS vendors.
d) Q series
a) AppOne
Answer: c b) Eccentex AppBase
Explanation: G series tells about level c) Ez Publish
transmission, modulation and framing. d) All of the mentioned

384. Which tells about signalling? Answer: b

a) V series Explanation: Eccentex is a Culver City,
b) X series California, company founded in 2005 that
c) G series has a PaaS development platform for Web
d) Q series applications.

75
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

388. Which of the following AppBase tool c) IaaS

allows you to assign access rights to d) All of the mentioned
different objects in the system?
Answer: a
a) Security Roles Management
Explanation: Microsoft’s Windows Azure
b) Dashboard Designer
Platform is best described as currently using
c) Report Builder
SaaS model.
d) All of the mentioned
391. Which of the following is the most
Answer: a
refined and restrictive service model?
Explanation: Security roles can be assigned
a) IaaS
in groups without users, and users can be
b) CaaS
added later as the application is deployed.
c) PaaS
389. Which of the following should be d) All of the mentioned
replaced with question mark in the figure?
Answer: c
Explanation: When the service requires the
client to use a complete
hardware/software/application stack, it is
using the most refined and restrictive
service model.

392. _______ is a pay-as-you-go model

a) CaaS matches resources to need on an ongoing
b) SaaS basis.
c) IaaS a) Utility
d) None of the mentioned b) Elasticity
c) Low barrier to entry
Answer: b
d) All of the mentioned
Explanation: A good PaaS system has
certain desirable characteristics that are Answer: a
important in developing robust, scalable, Explanation: This eliminates waste and has
and hopefully portable applications. the added benefit of shifting risk from the
client.
390. When you add a software stack, such
as an operating system and applications to 393. _______ feature allows you to
the service, the model shifts to _____ optimize your system and capture all
model. possible transactions.
a) SaaS a) scalability
b) PaaS b) reliability

76
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

c) elasticity Answer: c
d) none of the mentioned Explanation: Three types of Service model
exist.
Answer: c
Explanation: You have the ability to right- 397. The three different service models are
size resources as required. together known as the _____ model of
cloud computing.
394. _______ enables batch processing,
a) SPI
which greatly speeds up high-processing
b) SIP
applications.
c) CPI
a) Scalability
d) All of the mentioned
b) Reliability
c) Elasticity Answer: a
d) Utility Explanation: Many other service models are
also present.
Answer: a
Explanation: This feature obviates the need 398. CaaS stands for _____________ as
for planning and provisioning. service.
a) Compliance
395. _______ is a complete operating
b) Computer
environment with applications,
c) Community
management, and user interface.
d) Communication
a) IaaS
b) SaaS Answer: d
c) PaaS Explanation: Communication as a Service
d) All of the mentioned (CaaS), enables the consumer to utilize
Enterprise level VoIP, VPNs, PBX and Unified
Answer: b
Communications without the costly
Explanation: In the SaaS model, the
investment of purchasing, hosting and
application is provided to the client through
managing the infrastructure.
a thin client interface.
399. Which of the following is the IaaS
396. How many types of service model are
service provider?
mainly present in Cloud?
a) EC2
a) 1
b) EC1
b) 2
c) EC10
c) 3
d) Hybrid
d) 4
Answer: a
Explanation: On Amazon EC2, a client would

77
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

provision a computer in the form of a there is no direct interaction between users

virtual machine image. and their programs during execution.

400. ARPANET stands for? 403. A technique that marked the beginning
a) Advanced Research Project Agency of computer communications.
Network a) Batch Environment
b) Advanced Research Programmed Auto b) Message passing
Network c) User Environment
c) Advanced Research Project Automatic d) Time Sharing
Network
Answer: d
d) Advanced Research Project Authorized
Explanation: The answer is time sharing. In
Network
time sharing, Users were able to interact
Answer: a with the computer and could share its
Explanation: ARPANET stands for Advanced information processing resources.
Research Project Agency Network. It was
404. A type of technique in which dumb
developed in late 1960s under ARPA
terminals are connected to a central
(Advanced Research Projects Agency).
computer system.
401. Internet can help you find the shortest a) Time Sharing
route. b) Message passing
a) True c) Batch environment
b) False d) User environment

Answer: a Answer: a
Explanation: The statement is true. Explanation: This happens in time sharing.
Obviously, Internet is so widespread; it can In this, users were able to interact with the
help us in all the possible ways. It can computer and could share its information
predict the weather, play music, etc. processing resources.

402. In this technique, there is no direct 405. TCP stands for?

contact between users and their programs a) Transmission control program
during execution. b) Transmission control protocol
a) Time Sharing c) Transfer control program
b) Batch Processing d) Transfer control protocol
c) System Processing
Answer: b
d) Message Passing
Explanation: TCP stands for transmission
Answer: b control protocol. It basically allows different
Explanation: In the Batch Environment, networks to interconnect.

78
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

406. The “Victorian internet” is actually? Agency

a) Telegraph d) Defense Advanced Research Projects
b) Batch Environment Agency
c) Unit Environment
Answer: d
d) System Environment
Explanation: DARPA (Defense Advanced
Answer: a Research Projects Agency) contracted with
Explanation: It was a telegraph. Invented in BBN (Bolt, Beranek & Newman) to create
the 1840s. Used extensively by the U.S. ARPAnet.
Government.
410. A network of physical objects or things
407. Packet switching was invented in? embedded with electronics or softwares.
a) 1960s a) AI
b) 1980s b) ML
c) 2000s c) IOT
d) 1990s d) Internet

Answer: a Answer: c
Explanation: Packet switching was Explanation: IoT is a network of physical
developed in 1964. In packet switching, the objects or things embedded with
message is broken into parts and then sent electronics or softwares. Iot allows objects
over independently. to be controlled remotely across existing
network.
408. The probability of failure-free
operation of a software application in a 411. RFID is a part of IoT.
specified environment for a specified time. a) True
a) Software Reliability b) False
b) Software Quality
Answer: a
c) Software availability
Explanation: The statement is true. RFID is
d) Software Safety
Radio frequency identification. Radio
Answer: a frequency identification is a part of IoT.
Explanation: The answer is software
412. RFID stands for?
reliability. It is estimated using historical
a) Random frequency identification
and development data.
b) Radio frequency identification
409. DARPA stands for? c) Random frequency information
a) Data Advanced Research Projects Agency d) Radio frequency information
b) Defense Advanced Research Product
Answer: b
Agency
Explanation: Earlier, RFID or Radio
c) Data based Advanced Research Product
79
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

frequency identification was a prerequisite c) IoT Assistant

for Internet of Things. d) IoT

413. Which of the following is not involved Answer: b

in working of IoT? Explanation: Autobot is a diagnostics service
a) RFID for cars. This service is integrated with
b) Sensor several web services.
c) Nano tech
417. The father of ioT.
d) Server
a) Kevin Atrun
Answer: d b) Kevin Atrhur
Explanation: IoT works from RFID to Sensor, c) Kevin Ashton
to Smart tech and then to Nano tech. d) Kevin Thomas

414. Making the smaller and smaller things Answer: c

have the ability to connect and interact. Explanation: Kevin Ashton is the father of
a) Micro Tech IoT. He believed IoT could turn the world
b) Smart tech into data.
c) Nano tech
418. Collect->Communicate->__________-
d) RFID
>Act
Answer: c a) Acknowledge
Explanation: Nano Tech is the term used b) Analyze
when smaller things are made to interact c) Examine
and communicate. It is involved in the d) Rectify
working of Iot also.
Answer: a
415. Wi-Fi stands for? Explanation: The correct option is analyze.
a) Wireless fidelity This shows the lifecycle of IoT.
b) Wireless Flexibility Collect->Communicate->Analyze->Act.
c) Wide Fidelity
419. Several instructions execution
d) WAN Flexibility
simultaneously in?
Answer: a a) processing
Explanation: Wi-Fi stands for Wireless b) parallel processing
Fidelity. It is widely used in both outdoor c) serial processing
and indoor environments. d) multitasking

416. Diagnostics service for Cars. Answer: b

a) MIPS Explanation: In parallel processing, the
b) AutoBot several instructions are executed

80
Data Communication and Computer Networks Unit – 9 MCQs

simultaneously. Parallel processing system Answer: a

provides the concurrent data processing to Explanation: Bluetooth operates on 2.45
increase the execution time. GHz frequency ISM band for transmission. It
is used to create a wireless personal area
420. What is A2DP (advanced audio
network for data transfer up to a distance
distribution profile)?
of 10 meters.
a) a bluetooth profile for streaming audio
b) a bluetooth profile for streaming video 423. Bluetooth supports _______
c) a bluetooth profile for security a) point-to-point connections
d) a bluetooth profile for file management b) point-to-multipoint connection
c) both point-to-point connections and
Answer: a
point-to-multipoint connection
Explanation: A2DP stands for Advanced
d) multipoint to point connection
Audio Distribution Profile is a transfer
standard use to transmit high definition Answer: c
audio through Bluetooth. It is mainly used Explanation: In Bluetooth, each slave node
in Bluetooth speakers and wireless communicates with the master of the
headphones. piconet independently i.e. each master-
slave connection is independent. The slave
421. In a piconet, one master device
is not allowed to communicate with other
________
slaves directly.
a) can not be slave
b) can be slave in another piconet 424. A scatternet can have maximum
c) can be slave in the same piconet __________
d) can be master in another piconet a) 10 piconets
b) 20 piconets
Answer: b
c) 30 piconets
Explanation: In a scatternet, a slave node of
d) 40 piconets
one piconet may act as a master in a
piconet that is part of the scatternet. The Answer: a
scatternet uses this property to connect Explanation: A scatternet can have
many piconets together to create a larger maximum of 10 piconets and minimum of 2
network. piconets. To connect these piconets, a slave
node of one piconet may act as a master in
422. Bluetooth transceiver devices operate
a piconet that is part of the scatternet.
in ______ band.
a) 2.4 GHz ISM
b) 2.5 GHz ISM
c) 2.6 GHz ISM
d) 2.7 GHz ISM

81