ECNG 6701 Review Sheet 1

Please use this review sheet to ensure that you grasp the fundamentals, coming in to this course. You can use the recommended readings in the course outline, the Internet, the Main Library and UWILinc to access resources to assist you in answering the questions. 1. What is the principal difference between connection-oriented and connection-less communication service models? Is this the same as reliable vs unreliable communication service models? Discuss with examples. 2. Discuss the similarities and differences between the following: circuit-switching, message-switching, packet-switching. Give examples of each type of network. 3. Discuss the features of layered architectures. What are the advantages of using such an approach? (List 3) 4. What is a Network Architecture? What is a Protocol Stack? 5. What is the relationship between services, protocols, and interfaces? 6. Under what conditions can peer entities exchange/modify/replace their protocols in a layered architecture (e.g., Changing IPV4 for IPV6)? 7. Two application layer entities wish to communicate. Describe clearly how they would communicate using the Hybrid 5-layer model. Your answer should include the relationship between: interface control information and headers; encapsulation and de-encapsulation; service data units and protocol data units; and peer vs service interfaces. (Hint: Consider an N-layer network architecture, in particular the layer N/N-1 interface. Discuss how the Layer N entities implement their protocols using the layer N-1 entities.) 8. What are service access points? Give 3 examples. Who uses themservice users or service providers? 9. Peer entities implement protocols through exchange of header information. With reference to the HTTP protocol and using examples discuss this statement. 10. What does negotiation mean when discussing network protocols? Give an example. 11. What is the relationship between services, primitives, and interfaces? Discuss these by considering connection-oriented and connection-less service models. 12. Discuss the difference between the following: messages, segments, packets, and frames. Consider the protocol data units exchanged by data-link and network entities. Which PDU encapsulates which? Discuss. 13. A system has an n-layer protocol hierarchy. Applications generate messages of length M bytes. At each of the layers, an h-byte header is added. What fraction of the bandwidth is filled with headers? Consider n = 5, M= 1000, h = 20. Assume messages are sent on average every 50ms. Compare the actual bandwidth used by the application to the actual bandwidth used for transmission. Discuss the tradeoff between the need for header information, and the effect of protocol overhead on user data throughput. Page 1 of 2

14. Compare and contrast the OSI model with the TCP/IP model. (Hint: Section in the Tanenbaum) 15. Which of the OSI layers handles each of the following: dividing the transmitted bit stream into frames. determining which route of the communication subnet to use. represents services that directly support user applications. dialog control between host machines. character conversion, data compression, data encryption/decryption. 16. Which layers of the OSI model support host-to-host communications? What about the TCP/IP model? What layers are required at the minimum for communication in the subnet or network core? 17. Distinguish between network and application architectures. 18. List three different types of application architectures. Compare and contrast them. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each architecture type? 19. With reference to any Application-layer protocol, discuss with examples the following salient points as they apply to network protocol definitions: message types, message syntax, message semantics, inter-process communication and message sequencing.

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