Midterm Study Guide

Exam Format

The format of the midterm exam will be closed book, closed notes. No calculators or electronic devices will be allowed. Only basic math skills are required for the exam. You will have as much paper as you need to complete the exam. CHEATERS ARE LOSERS, DON'T CHEAT!

The exam will consist of multiple choice, fill in the blank and short essay questions. The exam should take you no more than 1 1/2 hours to complete and that is how much time you have. If you are having an unreasonably difficult time with the exam, chances are others are as well. Do the questions you know the best first and come back to the hard ones later. There is a grading curve to correct any problems in the exam or my instruction that led up to the exam.

Topics Covered

The recommended reading material we have covered up to the point of the midterm can be used as one study guide. However, the hand-outs, class lectures and class notes are the definitive reference for the exam. Below is a list of general topics that may be covered on the exam.

  1. Introduction to Computer Networking

    1. Basic Definitions and Concepts

      1. Data Transmission

      2. Topologies

      3. Media

      4. LANs, MANs, and WANs

      5. Serial and Parallel

      6. Multiplexing

      7. Simplex, Half-duplex, and Full-duplex

      8. Connection-oriented and Connetionless

      9. Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

      10. Standards

      11. Protocols

      12. Layering

      13. Headers, Data and Trailers

      14. Encapsulation

    2. ISO OSI Reference Model

    3. TCP/IP Model

  2. Physical Layer

    1. Numbering Systems

    2. Analog and Digital

      1. Modulation

      2. Encoding

      3. Baseband and Broadband

    3. Undesirable Effects

    4. Sampling Theorem (Nyquist) and Shannon's Limit

    5. Timing

    6. Repeaters

    7. Hubs

    8. Throughput versus Bandwidth

  3. Datalink Layer

    1. Basic Concepts

      1. Interface

      2. LANs and topologies

      3. Shared media

    2. Ethernet

      1. CSMA/CD operation

      2. Back-off Algorithm

      3. Collision Domain

      4. Addressing

      5. Frame Fields

      6. Wiring

      7. High-speed Ethernet

    3. Token Ring

      1. Token ring operation

      2. FDDI operation

    4. Logical Link Control

  4. LAN Bridges and Switches

    1. Motivation and concepts

    2. Transparent Briding

    3. Spanning Tree

      1. Motiviation and concepts

      2. Forwarding and blocking

    4. Source Route Briding

    5. Bridge Filters

    6. Switches

  5. Network Layer

    1. Motivation and key functions

    2. Internet Protocol

      1. Addressing

        1. Historic Class Addressing

        2. Dotted Decimal Notation

        3. Special Addresses

        4. Subnetting

        5. VLSM

        6. Supernetting

        7. CIDR

      2. Packet Fields

    3. Routing

      1. Basic concepts

      2. Routing tables

      3. Distance Vector

      4. Link State

    4. Address Resolution Protocol

    5. BOOTP

    6. DHCP

  6. Transport Layer

    1. Motivation and key concepts

    2. Transmission Control Protocol

      1. Basic operation

      2. Retransmissions

      3. Timers

      4. Flow control

      5. Windows

      6. Connection Startup/Shutdown

      7. Sequencing

      8. Application Multiplexing with Ports

      9. TCP Segment Fields

    3. User Datagram Protocol

  1. What is the binary number 10010011 in hexadecimal?

  2. At what layer of the OSI Protocol Model would an Ethernet hub fit into?

  3. The IETF is responsible for maintaining the Ethernet 802.3 protocol standard. True or False

  4. Why is must the data portion of an Ethernet frame be at least 46 bytes long, creating a minimum sized frame of 64 bytes?

  5. Given an IP address of 63.182.54.42 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, what is the directed broadcast address for the network this host is on?

  6. If two Ethernet segments (networks) are connected by two transparent bridges, what must be done to prevent problems in this configuration?

  7. An alternative to a LAN of connected PCs is a big timesharing system with dumb terminals for all users. Give two adantages of a client-server system using a LAN

  8. Draw two analog waves. One using amplitude modulation and the other using frequency modulation to encode data.

  9. A message is split into 10 packets, each of which has an 80 percent chance of arriving undamaged. If no error control is used, how many times must the message be sent on the average to get the entire message through?

  10. Give three examples of protocol parameters that might be negotiated in a connection-oriented environment?

  11. If Host 1 uses port a to connect to host 2, port b, is it possible for two or more connections between these two hosts to be using the same two ports at the same time? Yes or no?

  12. Can a bridge or switch connect a Ethernet network to a Token Ring network? Why or why not?

  13. Would the spanning tree algorithm be a good solution for IP routing in the Internet? Why or why not?

  14. What are two advantages of a link state routing protocol over a distance vector routing protocol?

  15. What would be two physical layer constraints on a satellite based computer network?

  16. An Ethernet bridge filter is capable of performing the following except:

    1. blocking MAC layer broadcasts

    2. blocking IP type frames

    3. blocking TCP type frames

    4. blocking the specific MAC address of 03-33-CD-40-5A-99

  17. Explain at least two of the techniques used to prevent the depletion of Internet IP addresses.

  18. How many root bridges exist in one spanning tree network?

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Last updated: April 24, 2000