Computer Science & Software Engineering

CSCI 466 Networks Fall 2011

Midterm Information

• 75 minutes, October 25th, 2pm
• Closed book, closed notes, no electronic devices except for a calculator.
• You are allowed a one-sided 8 1/2 x 11 note sheet, hand-written
• No makeups will be considered without an official University excuse

• Lectures 0-14
• Computer Networks: 1.1-1.6, 2.1-2.7, 3.1-3.3, 4.1, 4.4

• Protocol stacks, encapsulation
• 7-layer OSI model
• Internet architecture, TCP/IP model
• Measuring performance: bandwidth, throughput, latency, RTT, jitter, delay x bandwidth
• Physical ways to transmit bits: cables, wireless, microwave, satellite
• Link capacity, Shannon-Hartley Theorem
• Encoding bits: NRZ, Manchester, NRZI, 4B/5B
• Framing data: sentinel-based, count-based, clock-based
• Error detection/correction, checksums, CRCs
• Building blocks for reliable transmission: acknowledgements, timeouts
• ARQ algorithms: stop-and-wait, sliding window
• Ethernet MAC addresses, how they are assigned
• Progression of Ethernet technologies, why so successful
• Media Access Control for shared Ethernet
• Difference between shared and switched Ethernet
• 802.11 wireless, collision avoidance, ACKs
• Wireless, base station versus ad hoc/mesh networks
• Wireless, hidden node problem, exposed node problem
• Difference between a router, switch/bridge, repeater, hub
• Types of switching: datagram and virtual circuit, advantages/disadvantages
• Backward learning in switches
• Flooding in switching, problem with loops, spanning bridge algorithm
• Virtual LAN (VLAN)
• Internet protocol, service model
• IPv4 packets, how fragmentation works
• IPv4 addresses, classful addresses, subnetting, CIDR, private IPs
• Address resolution protocol (ARP)
• Host configuration using DHCP
• Error reporting (ICMP): traceroute, path MTU discovery
• Routing protocols: link-state, distance-vector, path-vector. How they work, where they are used, advantages/disadvantages.
• Dijkstra's algorithm for finding shortest path
• Representation of network as a graph
• Routing areas for scaling inside an AS
• Intradomain versus interdomain routing
• Autonomous systems, what they are, different kinds, peering
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), routing inside/outside an AS, prefix hijacking
• IPv4 versus IPv6
• Network Address Translation (NAT), problems with NAT
• UDP hole punching
• Techniques which mitigate running out of IPv4 addresses
• Goals and features of IPv6
• Unicast, multicast, broadcast, anycast
• Mobile routing

Page last updated: August 16, 2012