Chap.1
1. Imagine that you have trained your St. Bernard, Bernie, to carry a box of
three 8mm tapes instead of a flask of brandy. (When your disk fills up, you
consider that an emergency.) These tapes each contain 7 gigabytes. The dog
can travel to your side, wherever you may be, at 18 km/hour. For what range
of distances does Bernie have a higher data rate than a transmission line
whose data rate (excluding overhead) is 150 Mbps?
2. An alternative to a LAN is simply a big timesharing system with terminals
for all users. Give two advantages of a client-server system using a LAN.
3. The performance of a client-server system is influenced by two network
factors: the bandwidth of the network (how many bits/sec it can transport)
and the latency (how many seconds it takes for the first bit to get from the
client to the server). Give an example of a network that exhibits high
bandwidth and high latency. Then give an example of one with low bandwidth
and low latency.
4. Besides bandwidth and latency, what other parameter is needed to give a good
characterization of the quality of service offered by a network used for
digitized voice traffic?
5. A factor in the delay of a store-and-forward packet-switching system is how
long it takes to store and forward a packet through a switch. If switching
time is 10 µsec, is this likely to be a major factor in the response of a
client-server system where the client is in New York and the server is in
California? Assume the propagation speed in copper and fiber to be 2/3 the
speed of light in vacuum.
6. A client-server system uses a satellite network, with the satellite at a
height of 40,000 km. What is the best-case delay in response to a request?
7. In the future, when everyone has a home terminal connected to a comput