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SIT202 Computer Networks Assignment1

Task 1
Computer network - A set of computers that are connected via cabling, most commonly the
Ethernet cable, or wirelessly through radio waves, for sharing resources and accessing to the
Internet, printers, file servers and others[ CITATION Stu15 \l 3081 ].
Network architecture Defines the logical and structural layout of the network, consisting of
the hardware, software, connectivity, communication protocols and mode of transmission
including wired and wireless[ CITATION wha15 \l 3081 ].
Protocol Defines the format and the order of messages (data) exchanged between two or more
communicating entities (devices), also determines the type of error checking to be used, data
compression method, the way that how the sending device indicates the finish of sending and
how the receiving device indicates the receipt of the message[ CITATION Kur \l 3081 ].
Multilayer protocol - Multilayer protocol is capable of the functionalities included in Protocol,
instead of only being used in one layer, multilayer protocol is available for more than one layer
in the same time, distributed among the end system, packet switches, and other components that
make up the network.

Task 2
In terms of the professional issues of computer networks, being qualified and performing tasks
conscientiously are significant for people who are working in this realm. Except some basic skills such
as problem solving, decision making, the professionals also include analysing, developing, interpreting
and evaluating complex system design and architecture specifications. Besides the technical skills,
computer networks professionals perform an unignorably task ethical obligation. Nowadays,
computer network has been taking a significant role in human communication, therefore keeping the
privacy and integrity of the information that clients transmitted is the most basic principle that should
be followed by all the IT professionals in computer networks, preventing any rights of any stakeholders
being violated by cyber-crimes via networks.
Computer networks has had a profound effect on the lives of our society, as it have become extremely
common. The patterns of communication, shopping, trading and education have also been changed due
to the techniques provided by internet. However, this trend is raising a negative effect to our society
that the reliance we obtained from computer network is overwhelmed. Form medical industry, building
industry and transportation to paying the electricity bills, the information computed and transmitted by
the computer networks is the foundation that supports all the activates in these realms can perform
properly. On the other hand, if any subtle glitch or virus infection happened on a device that is
connected into the network, without a perfect contingency plan or sufficient protection for information
security, the consequence of this situation would be fatal for our lives.
Electronic commerce has been tightly integrated with large-scale computer networks. Commercial
severs are enabled via complex communication technologies that are usually manipulated by online
consumers via accessing the services with virtually unpredictable behaviour. Both of the network user
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and the physical equipment (e-Commerce infrastructure) are vulnerable to cyber - attacks. Especially
Distributed Denial - of-Service (DDoS) attack, literally, anyone on the internet can launch a DDos
attack to flood and shutdown an e - Commerce website to disable all the routine operation that are
performed on the website[ CITATION Hua15 \l 3081 ].
The impact of Computer Networks is extremely increasing, through all the human activities while
changing our conventional behaviour patterns. Person to person communication and physical mail are
gradually being replaced by online chatting and email, respectively. Furthermore, the traditional
courtesy, strictly abided by ancient people in greeting, even the language pattern, have been change
as well due to the development in computer network. Ironically, due to the invention of social network,
establishing an intimacy between two unacquainted people, which have never saw each other in the real
world, is easier than before, unfortunately, increasing the rate of criminal behaviour[ CITATION ALE \l
3081 ].

Task 3
The primary professional requirement for an IT employee is obligated to perform assigned tasks
completely, according to professional standard that not only attention to technical excellence but also
concern for the social effects of computers on operators, users, and the public. However, there is always
a tradeoff between computing values, in this case, the network productivity, computing professionals,
restricted budget and client particular requirement. Usually, professional implement the network to
meet the minimum performance requirements for speed, reliability, and functionality, within an overall
budget, while relatively minimizing the resource invested on graphical user interface enhancement, or
vice versa. That is sound reasonable, while, as network is gaining more and more popularity from
ordinary user, which is the community that gives the preference to products with user-friendly design in
IT industry, stubbornly stick to not giving a priority for user interface design may increasing a risk of
losing market. On the other hand, professional always have to have an attention on the reliability of the
network, even the tradeoff is emerging between productivity and graphical design in network. Because,
it is still common that some malicious user via damaging our Internet-connected computers, to violate
our privacy, and render inoperable the Internet services on which we depend[ CITATION Ben08 \l
3081 ].

Task 4
Connection-oriented communication is a network communication mode in telecommunications and
computer networking, which the devices at the end points use a preliminary protocol to establish an end
to end connection before any data is sent.
Reliable communication is usually achieved in overlay networks by applying TCP on the end on nodes
of a connection[ CITATION Yai \l 3081 ].Comparing with the UDP protocol, using connectionless
network model, TCP Service model, including a connection oriented service and a reliable data
transfer server, enables connection oriented service provides more reliable service for user.
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A Transmission Control Protocol is initialized by the handshake method, which establishes a logical
connection between the hosts by synchronizing the sending and receiving of packets and
communication TCO parameters between the hosts.
Specifically, TCP has the client and server exchange transport layer control information with each
other, before the application level messages begin to flow, then delivering all data sent without error
and in the proper order while keeping track of data that has been sent and received to ensure it all gets
to its destination [ CITATION Int15 \l 3081 ]. Thus, with the features of TCP, connection oriented
service can guarantee that all data sent will be checked for reception, and checked for data integrity,
and then retransmitted when need, in other words, reliable transport is implemented.

Task 5
Through the question we get the diagram below:
TR1 TR2 TR3 TR4
Host1 R1 - R2 R3 Host221

L= total length Fast link Slow link TR3 congested

The total end to end delay is achieved by adding all the delays according to their types, including
transmission delay, propagation delay, processing delay and queuing delay. Assume that there is only
one packet in the network, and the transmission rate of each link is represented by R.
Processing delay ( d proc ):
Processing delay represents the time required to examine the packets header and determine the
destination of the delivery, while the performances are implemented in routers. In this case, the
processing delays only happened, when data transmitted through R1, R2, and R3.
The formula of processing delay: d proc =R 1 proc + R 2 proc + R 3 proc

Queuing delay ( d queue ):

If regarding the routers as the nodes in the connection, when the transmission speed of the
previous link is faster than the speed of the next, the packets experiences a queuing delay as it waits to
be transmitted on the link. This situation occurs when packet is placed in the queue for exiting the
router, in this scenario, the queuing delays existed in R3, since the TR4 link is congested.
The formula of queuing delay: d queue =R 3 queue

Transmission delay ( d trans ):

The transmission delays stands for the sum of the delay that spends on waiting for the arrival of
the entire packet, the delay is introduced at the input to each link along the packets route.
The formula of transmission delay: d trans=4L/R
Propagation delay ( d ):
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The time required to propagate fro, the beginning of the link to the next device is the
propagation delay.
The formula of propagation delay: d =4D /S (D for distance between host 1 and host 2, S
for the propagation speed)

Task 6
Dividing the networking into 5 different layers has addressed the issues caused by the complexity since
the internet consists various networks. The 5 layer TCP/IP based Internet Model includes Application,
Transport, Network, Link and Physical layers.
Application layer defines genetic available network application or services the Internet can support, in
other words, this layer is where network application sand their application-layer protocol reside,
including HTTP, SMTP, and FTP. The lower layer is Transport layer, which concerns how data can be
reliably transferred over the network using TCP or UDP. The next layer is Network layer, which is
responsible for addressing then routing packets on the network with IP protocol. The Link layer, as the
part of the system, concerns with how user communicate with the local network, whether is Ethernet or
token ring with NAP protocol, while routing a datagram (packet) through a series of routers between
the source and destination. The job of the last layer Physical layer, is to move the individual bits
within the frame (refers to the packet in Link layer) from one node to the next.
Compare Network layer are focusing on addressing internetworking, error handing, congestion control
and packet sequencing with switching and routing technologies, Transport layer is responsible for
keeping the integrity of the packet by end to end recovery and flow control.[ CITATION 5ll03 \l
3081 ]

Task 7
The animation is presented in a separate file name Question 7.

Task 8

a) T trans =ts+k ( 1 m+N h )+d proc (k 1)

Definition of Packet switched virtual circuit network: Based on the physical structure of
packet switched computer network, the packet is solely transporting through a dedicated
physical layer link between the source and destination.
Formula Explanation:
ts VC set up time
1m - The length of all the transmitted packets
1m + h The total length of all the data including the total h bits of header
(1m + h) / N - The time of transmission delay for each link
k((1m + h) / N) The time of transmission delay for the entire route
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(k 1) The number of routers in the route

d proc (k1) The processing delay

( 1+2 h ) m
b) T trans =k ( N ) + d proc (k1)
Definition of Packet switched datagram network: The data of each packet is decomposed into
separate entity and contains a header which indicates the about the intended recipient, while the
intermediate nodes examine the header of a packet and determine an appropriate link to
an intermediate node which is nearer the destination[ CITATION Dat15 \l 3081 ].
Formula explanation:
1 + 2h The length of each data including the h bits of header
(1+ 2h) m The total length of all the transmitted packets
(1 + 2h) m / N - The time of transmission delay for each link
k((1 + 2h) m/ N) The time of transmission delay for the entire route
(k 1) The number of routers in the route
d proc (k1) The processing delay

1 m+ nm 2h
c) T trans =k ( N )
+ d proc ( k1)
Definition of message switching: A network switching technique where data is routed in its
entirety from the source node to the destination mode, as the network only transports the
message until the ample resource is capable of effective transmission of the message.
[ CITATION Jan15 \l 3081 ]
Formula explanation:
1m The length of total packet including the h bits of header
nm - The number of the message
nm 2 h - The total length of the header
(1m + nm 2 h ) / N The time of transmission delay for each link
k(1m + nm 2 h ) / N The time of transmission delay for the entire route
(k 1) The number of routers in the route
d proc (k1) The processing delay

1 m+h
d) T trans =ts+
N
Definition of circuit switching: a type of communication in which a dedicated channel is
established for the duration of a transmission, regarded as an ideal for real time data
transmission.[ CITATION Van15 \l 3081 ]
Formula explanation:
ts VC set up time
1m - The length of all the transmitted packets
1m + h The total length of all the data including the total h bits of header
(1m + h) / N - The time of transmission delay for each link

Task 9
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The first type of passive attack is to learn or make use of information from the system without affecting
system resources. The second type of it is to simply identify the identity and location of the two
communicating parties.
An active attack is to cause disruption, and it is easier to be detected compared with passive attack
which only cause a little impact to the information transmitted. The active attack includes masquerade,
to pretend to be someone else; replay, to capture information to send it elsewhere; modification, to
change the information; denial of service, to cause a disruption to the network.[ CITATION Jac11 \l
3081 ]

Task 10
The processing running on one host can use port number, provide in the list based on TCP/IP, to
identify a specific process to which an Internet or other network message to be forwarded when it
arrives at a server, ensuring two systems communicate correctly.

Task 11
A stateless protocol is a communication protocol that neglects the previous request related to the
request, thus the communication is only consists of two independent parts, including request and
response. HTTP is stateless, because each request from user for a Web page or URL results in the
requested pages being served, without the web server remembering the request. [ CITATION Mat05 \l
3081 ]

Task 12
Domain Name System (DNS) is a system for naming computers and network services that is organized
into a hierarchy of domains. A DNS server provides name resolution for TCP/IP based network,
enabling user of client computer to use names rather than human unreadable address numeric IP
address to identify remote hosts. [ CITATION Win08 \l 3081 ]
An authoritative name server is a name server contains the source of the information that the recursive
DNS server send to wed clients.
The root servers contain the global list of the top level domains, including generic top level domains,
such as .com, .net, and .org; country code top level domains, and internationalised top level domains.
[ CITATION net15 \l 3081 ]
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