Practice questions - Computer Networks - Midterm 01 (Fall 2012)

1. Suppose an HTML file references 5 small objects of known sizes on the same
server. Derive an expression for the total time required to complete the download of
all the references objects.
a) Non-persistent HTTP
b) Persistent HTTP
2. Consider an institutional network that is connected to the Internet through a 15Mbps
access link. Suppose the average object size is 850,000 bits and the average
request rate is 16 requests per second. Also suppose the amount of time it takes
from when the router on the Internet side of the access link forwards an HTTP
request until it receives the response is 3 seconds on average. Model the total
average response time as the sum of the average access delay and the average
Internet delay. For the average access delay, use /(1-), where is the arrival
rate and average time required to send an object over the access link.
a)
Find the total average response time.
b)
Suppose a cache is installed in the institutional LAN and the miss rate is 0.4.
Find the total response time.
3. Consider distributing a file of F = 15 Gbits to N peers. The server has an upload rate
of us = 30 Mbps, and each peer has a download rate of di = 2 Mbps and and upload
rate of u. For N = 10, 100, and 1000 and u = 300 Kbps, 700 Kbps, and 2 Mbps,
prepare a chart giving the minimum distribution time for each of the combinations of
N and u for both client-server distribution and P2P distribution.
4. As DHTs are overlay networks, they may not necessarily match the underlay
physical network well in the sense that two neighboring peers might be physically
very far away. If we randomly and uniformly assign identifiers to newly joined peers,
would this assignment scheme cause such a mismatch? Explain how would such a
mismatch affect the performance?
5. DNS servers also allow reverse lookups; given an IP address 128.112.169.4, it is
reversed into a text string 4.169.112.128.in-addr.arpa and looked up using DNS PTR
records (which forms a hierarchy of domains analogous to that for the address
domain hierarchy). Suppose you want to authenticate the sender of a packet based
on its host name and are confident that the source IP address is genuine. Explain
the insecurity in converting the source address to a name as above and then
comparing this name to a given list of trusted hosts.
6. Suppose a host elects to use a name server not within its organization for address
resolution. When would this result in no more total traffic, for queries not found in
any DNS cache, than with a local name server? When might this result in a better
DNS cache hit rate and possibly less total traffic?

7. Consider a packet of length L which begins at end system A, travels over one link to
a packet switch, and travels from the packet switch over a second link to a
destination end system. Let di, si, and Ri denote the length, propagation speed, and
transmission rate of link i, for i = 1, 2. The packet switch delays each packet by dproc.
Assuming no queuing delays, in terms of di, si, Ri, (i = 1, 2) and L, what is the total
end-to-end delay for the packet? Suppose the packet is 1000 bytes, the propagation
speed on both links is 2.5 x 108 m/s, the transmission rates of both links is 1 Mbps,
the packet switch processing delay is 1 msec, the length of the first link is 4000 km,
and the length of the last link is 1000 km. For these values, what is the end-to-end
delay?
8. Briefly explain three major drawbacks of a unstructured peer-to-peer overlay network
such as Gnutella.
9. Following questions (parts (a) and (b)) are based on mapping documents to nodes in
P2P systems.
a)
Give two advantages of consistent hashing when compared to traditional
hashing in mapping documents to nodes in a peer-to-peer system.
b)
What are the disadvantages of the consistent hashing approach (in general)?
10. Which of these drawbacks are addressed by structured (covered in the lecture notes
and book) peer-to-peer overlay networks? Explain your answer.
11. Briefly state the end-to-end principle in its entirety. Explain the challenges involved in
identifying the end points.
12. Apply the end-to-end principle to common application scenarios such as Email (hint:
spam filtering) and discuss the pros and cons of applying E2E versus not applying.
13. Apply end-to-end principle to Web client-server architectures. Where is it not E2E?