CSIT 561 Computer Networks: An Internet Perspective Homework1

1.      Consider two hosts, A and B, connected by a single link of rate R bps. Suppose that the two hosts are separated by m metres, and suppose the propagation speed along the link is s metres/sec. Host A is to send a packet of size L bits to host B.

a)      Express the propagation delay, d_prop, in terms of m and s.

b)      Determine the transmission time of the packet, d_trans, in terms of L and R.

c)      Ignoring processing and queuing delays, obtain an expression for the end-to-end delay.

d)      Suppose host A begins to transmit the packet at time t = 0. At time t = d_trans, where is the last bit of the packet?

e)      Suppose d_prop is greater than d_trans. At time t = d_trans, where is the first bit of the packet?

f)        Suppose d_prop is less than d_trans. At time t = d_trans, where is the first bit of the packet?

g)      Suppose s = 2.5 × 10⁸, L = 100 bits, and R = 28 Kbps. Find the distance m so that d_prop equals d_trans.

h)      Use a program like Microsoft Excel to explore the interplay of transmission and propagation delay further. Consider three different packet sizes L = 100 bits, 1000 bits and 1,000,000 bits. Further consider three different link bandwidths R = 56 Kbps, 1.5 Mbps and 1.5 Gbps. Also, consider three different distances m = 2.5 metres, 25 Km, and 2500 Km. For each of these 27 combinations, compute d_prop, d_trans and the end-to-end delay. Explain your observations in a few sentences.

1.      a. d_prop = m/s sec

b. d_trans = L/R sec

c. delay = d_prop + d_trans = m/s + L/R sec

d. The last bit is just leaving the Host A

e. The first bit still in the link has not reached Host B

f. The first bit still has reached Host B

g. d_prop = d_trans => m/s = L/R => m = (L/R)*s = (100/28 × 10³) * 2.5 × 10⁸ = 893 km

h. Sol: Suppose s = 2.5 * 10⁸, data and observations are summarized below.

m	s	dprop
2.5	250000000	0.00000001
25000	250000000	0.0001
2500000	250000000	0.01

            As shown in the table above, the value of d_prop increases while the physical link becomes longer.

L	R	dtrans
100	56000	0.001786
100	1500000	0.0000666667
100	1500000000	0.0000000667
1000	56000	0.017857
1000	1500000	0.000667
1000	1500000000	0.0000006667
1000000	56000	17.85714
1000000	1500000	0.666667
1000000	1500000000	0.000667

            As shown in the table above, d_trans decreases when the link bandwidth becomes larger, and increases with the augment of packet length.

L	R	m	s	end-to-end delay
100	1500000000	2.5	250000000	7.66667E-08
1000	1500000000	2.5	250000000	6.76667E-07
100	1500000	2.5	250000000	6.66767E-05
100	1500000000	25000	250000000	0.000100067
1000	1500000000	25000	250000000	0.000100667
100	1500000	25000	250000000	0.000166667
1000	1500000	2.5	250000000	0.000666677
1000000	1500000000	2.5	250000000	0.000666677
1000	1500000	25000	250000000	0.000766667
1000000	1500000000	25000	250000000	0.000766667
100	56000	2.5	250000000	0.001785724
100	56000	25000	250000000	0.001885714
100	1500000000	2500000	250000000	0.010000067
1000	1500000000	2500000	250000000	0.010000667
100	1500000	2500000	250000000	0.010066667
1000	1500000	2500000	250000000	0.010666667
1000000	1500000000	2500000	250000000	0.010666667
100	56000	2500000	250000000	0.011785714
1000	56000	2.5	250000000	0.017857153
1000	56000	25000	250000000	0.017957143
1000	56000	2500000	250000000	0.027857143
1000000	1500000	2.5	250000000	0.666666677
1000000	1500000	25000	250000000	0.666766667
1000000	1500000	2500000	250000000	0.676666667
1000000	56000	2.5	250000000	17.85714287
1000000	56000	25000	250000000	17.85724286
1000000	56000	2500000	250000000	17.86714286

      The end-to-end delay becomes larger while L or m is increasing and R is decreasing. By contrast, the end-to-end delay becomes smallest while R is rather large and L, m is rather small.

2.      Suppose Alice , with a web-based e-mail account (such as Hotmail), sends a message to Bob, who accesses his mail from his mail server using POP3. Discuss how the message gets from Alice ’s host to Bob’s host. Be sure to list the series of application-layer protocols that are used to move the message between the two hosts.

Message is sent from Alice ’s host to her mail server via HTTP. Then Alice ’s mail server sends the message to Bob’s mail server via SMTP. Then Bob transfers the message from his mail server to his host via POP3.

3.      Suppose within your Web browser you click on a link to obtain a Web page. Suppose that the IP address for the associated URL is not cached in your local host, so that a DNS look-up is necessary to obtain the IP address. Suppose that n DNS servers are visited before your host receives the IP address from DNS; the successive visits incur an RTT of RTT₁, …, RTT_n. Further suppose that the Web page associated with the link contains exactly one object, a small amount of HTML text. Let RTT₀ denote the RTT between the local host and the server containing the object. Assuming zero transmission time of the object, how much time elapses from when the client clicks on the link until the client receives the object?

      The total amount of time to get the IP address is RTT1 + RTT2 ++ RTTn .

Once the IP address is known, RTT O elapses to set up the TCP connection and another RTT O elapses to request and receive the small object. The total response time is 2 RTT O + RTT1 + RTT2 ++ RTTn .