Topics to be Covered in the Final

 

The final will cover the following topics:

 

  1. Internet Transport Layer Protocols
    1. UDP basic operations

                                                             i.      UDP basic segment fields and error checking mechanism

    1. TCP basic operations

                                                             i.      TCP segment fields: You do not have to remember the structure of the TCP segment. You need, however, to be able to discuss the semantics of each field and what it achieves.

                                                           ii.      TCP roundtrip time estimation and timeout: you need to understand the algorithms and discuss their advantages and shortcomings.

                                                         iii.      TCP flow control: You need to understand the mechanisms TCP uses to achieve flow control.

                                                        iv.      TCP connection management.

                                                          v.      TCP congestion control

1.    Fairness concept and its feasibility in terms of implementation

    1. You need to be able to solve problems related to TCP, similar to those in the midterm and the book
  1. Network Layer
    1. Datagrams and Virtual Circuits

                                                             i.      Discuss and compare the two approaches

                                                           ii.      Be able to solve performance questions related to both switching techniques.

    1. Routing design requirements

                                                             i.      Optimality, Faireness, robustness, etc

                                                           ii.      Be able to solve M/M/1 based questions related to routing strategies

    1. IP basic operations

                                                             i.      Understanding the basic operations of the protocol and discuss the purpose of every field of an IP datagram.

                                                           ii.      IPv4 addressing

1.    Classful addressing

2.    Classless addressing

                                                         iii.      Prefix and Prefix based routing

    1. Routing Algorithms

                                                             i.      Bellman-Ford and Dijkistra algorithms.

1.    You must be able to compute the shortest path from a source to a destination using either algorithm. You need to show intermediate steps in your computation

                                                           ii.      Distance Vector and Link State Protocols

1.    You need to understand, compare and contrast the basic operations of each protocol

2.    You need to be able to compare and contrast the two strategies.

    1. Routing in the Internet

                                                             i.      You need to understand the basic operations of RIP, OSPF and BGP

1.    Concept of hierarchies and what it achieves

2.    Link failures and how it can be addressed

3.    Convergence properties

4.    Scalability

    1. Multicasting

                                                             i.      You need to understand different types implementations of multicasting, i.e, application level, network level, etc

                                                           ii.      You need to understand the complexity for each approach to multicasting

                                                         iii.      You need to understand the basic mechanisms underlying the implementation of different multicast strategies, i.e., reverse path forwarding, core based, shortest path etc.

    1. Data Link Layer Design Issues

                                                             i.      Basic functionalities of DLL

                                                           ii.      Error checking strategies and mechanisms

1.    Error detection and correction

2.    Forward error correction

a.    Hamming distance