Ques.1: What is an OSI model?

Explain all its layers with

diagram.
Ans.1: OSI Model:
Open System Interconnection model or OSI Model was
developed and came in use during 1990s, as before 1990s
data communication model had been used.
The OSI model is not a protocol; a model for understanding and
designing network architecture that is flexible, robust and
interoperable.
The OSI Model is a layered framework for the design of network
systems that allows communication between all types of
computer systems without requiring changes to the logic of
underlying hardware and software.
Layers of OSI model:
OSI Model consists of seven separate but related layers, each of
which defines a part of the process of moving information
across a network.
Application Layer

Presentation Layer

Session Layer

Transport Layer

Network Layer

Data Link Layer

Physical Layer
1. Physical Layer: It is the initial layer which coordinates
the functions that are required for bit transmission over a
physical medium. Basically defines the procedures and
physical devices and interfaces have to perform for
transmission to occur.
2. Data Link Layer: This is the Layer 2 in an OSI model that
transforms the physical layer to appear error free to the

Network Layer. It is also responsible for various other

functions such as framing, error control, flow control....
etc.
3. Network Layer: It is the Layer 3 in the OSI model
responsible for internetworking the source-to-destination
delivery of packets, possibly across multiple links. Other
responsibilities of this layer include logical addressing and
routing.
4. Transport Layer: Next to network Layer, Transport Layer
is the Layer 4 in OSI model responsible for process-toprocess delivery of the entire message. It also ensures
that the whole message arrives intact and in order,
overseeing both error and flow control at the source-todestination level.
5. Session Layer: Layer 5 of the OSI model, it acts as the
network dialog controller. It establishes, maintains and
synchronizes the interaction among communicating
systems.
6. Presentation Layer: This layer is the Layer 6 concerned
with the syntax and semantics of the information
exchanged
between
two
systems.
The
specific
responsibilities of this layer include Translation, Encryption
and Compression.
7. Application Layer: It is the final layer of the OSI model
providing user interfaces to access the network and
support for distributed information services. Specific
services provided by this Layer include: Provision of
Network Virtual terminals, file transfer, access and
management, Directory services.

Ques.2: What is Message and packet switching?

Ans.2: Beyond local area, transmission of data from source to
destination is done by a network of intermediate switching
nodes: provides a switching facility to move data from node-tonode until destination is reached. Message switching and
packet switching are the common switching techniques for
these transmit.
Message Switching:
Message switching was first introduced by Leonard Kleinrock in
1961. It was the precursor of packet switching, where
messages were routed in their entirety and one hop at a time.
Nowadays message switching systems are mostly implemented
over packet-switched or circuit-switched data networks.
For example, E-mail, Hop-by-hop Telex forwarding. The time
when this form of switching is used, no any physical path is
built in advance in between the sender and the receiver. When
the sender has a block of data to be sent, it is first stored in the
first switching office i.e. the router then it is forwarded later at
one hop at a time.
Each and every block are received in their entity form, checked
for errors and then forwarded or re-transmitted. Data is
transmitted into the network and then stored in a switch. It is a
form of store-and-forward networking.
The network transfers the data from switch-to-switch when
required or when data is not transferred in the real-time.
Long delay can happen in this but blocking does not occur.
As the conversions are done in message switching networks
there is no need for the source and destination terminal to be
compatible for that.
Packet Switching:
Packet switching is much similar to message switching. Packet
switching simply splits the traffic data that can be the digital
representation of sound or computer data, into small chunks
known as packets.
For a message to be sent through a packet-switching network
that exceeds the length than the maximum packet size, it

breaks down the messages into packets for the transmission.

These packets, each with an associated header are then
transmitted one at a time to the network.
Packet switching networks does not require a circuit to be built
and it allows many pairs of nodes to communicate
simultaneously over the same channel.
A well known use of packet switching is the internet. Ethernet
and Frame relay are the common example of Packet switching.
Packet switching is also considered as connectionless network
because no connections are built in it.

Ques.3: List the design issues related to Data Link Layer.

Ans.3: In respect of the OSI reference model, the data link
layer is concerned with local delivery of frames between
devices on the same LAN. It provides a well defined service
interface to the network layer, responsible for various error
detection, correction techniques and framing. To achieve these
goals, the data link layer takes the packets from the network
layer and encapsulates bit stream into units called frames for
transmission i.e. packets or messages. Each frame contains a
frame header, a payload field for holding the packet, and a
frame trailer.
The major function of the data link layer is to provide services
to the network layer. The principal service is transferring data
from the network layer on the source machine to the network
layer on the destination machine.
The Data Link Layer design issues are listed below:
1. The Data Link Layer provides services to the network
layer. The network layer should be able to send packets to
its neighbours without worrying about the details of
getting it there in one piece.
2. The DLL does the process of framing the bits, i.e.
encapsulating the packets
3. Sender checksums the frame and sends checksum
together with data. The checksum allows the receiver to
determine when a frame has been damaged in transit.
4. Receiver recomputes the checksum and compares it with
the received value. If they differ, an error has occurred
and the frame is discarded.
5. Perhaps return a positive or negative acknowledgment to
the sender. A positive acknowledgment indicates the
frame was received without errors, while a negative
acknowledgment indicates the opposite.
6. Flow control: A data link protocol discusses tasks like error
control and flow control but these tasks are also dealt at
transport layer along with some other protocols.
In order to provide service to the network layer, the data link
layer should use the services provided by the physical layer to
it. The physical layer accepts a raw bit stream and attempts to
deliver it to the destination. This bit stream is not guaranteed
to be error-free. The number of bits received may be less than,

equal to, or more than the number of bits transmitted, and they
have different values. It is up to the data link layer to detect,
and if necessary, correct the errors.

Ques.4: Briefly explain Point-to-Point Protocol.

Ans.4: Point-to-Point Protocol:
Point-to-Point Protocol or PPP is a network-specific standard
protocol with STD number 51. It is elective in status and is
described in RFC 1661 and RFC 1662. Later on the standards
described in these RFCs were extended to allow IPv6 over PPP,
as defined in RFC 2472.
There are numerous proposed standard protocols that specify
the operation of PPP over different kinds of point-to-point links.
For the data communications, Point-to-point circuits in the form
of asynchronous and synchronous lines have long been the
backbone.
There are three main components in PPP known to be:
A Link Control Protocols (LCP) for establishing, configuring
and testing the data-link connection.
A family of Network Control Protocols (NCPs) for
establishing and configuring different network-layer
protocols.
A method for encapsulating datagrams over serial links.
Designing of PPP is to allow the synchronous use of multiplelayer protocols.
Before a link is considered to be ready for the use by Networklayer protocols, a particular sequence of events must occur.
The LCP allows a method of establishing, configuring,
maintaining, and terminating the connection. It passes through
these following phases:
1. Link
establishment
and
configuration
negotiation:
In this phase, link control packets are exchanged and
link configuration options are negotiated.
2. Link quality determination:
It is an optional phase. PPP does not specify the policy
for determining quality, but does provide low-level
tools, such as echo request and reply.
3. Authentication:
It is also an optional phase. Each end of the link
authenticates itself with the remote end using
authentication methods agreed to during the first
phase.

4. Network-layer
protocol
configuration
negotiation:
After LCP has finished the previous phase, networklayer protocols can be separately configured by the
appropriate NCP.
5. Link termination:
LCP can terminate the link at any time, usually done at
the request of a human user.
The encapsulation fields are described as:
Protocol field:
The protocol field is one or two octets, and its value
identifies the datagram encapsulated in the Information
field of the packet.
Information field:
The Information field is zero or more octets. The
Information field contains the datagram for the protocol
specified in the Protocol field.
Padding:
On transmission, the information field can be padded
with an arbitrary number of octets up to the MRU
(Maximum Received Unit), which defaults to 1500
octets.

Ques.5: Briefly explain

Internet Mail Extensions.

five

parts

of

Multipurpose

Ans.5: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME):

Expansion of MIME is Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Email is likely the most widely used TCP/IP application but, SMTP
is limited to 7-bit ASCII text, with a maximum line length of
1000 characters resulting in a number of problems, including:
o Cannot transmit executable files or other binary objects.
o Cannot transmit text data that includes national language
character.
o Servers might reject mail messages over a certain size.
o Removal of trailing white-space characters
o Wrapping of lines longer than 76 characters.
o Conversion of tab characters to multiple spaces.
To resolve these problems MIME is a draft standard that
includes mechanisms in a manner that is highly compatible
with existing RFC 2822 standards.
Usually, Multipurpose Internet Media Extensions (MIME) is
described in five parts namely:
1. Protocols for including objects other than US ASCII text
mail messages within the bodies of messages conforming
to RFC 2822. These are explained in RFC 2045.
2. General structure of the MIME media typing system, which
defines an initial set of media types. It is described in RFC
2046.
3. A protocol for encoding non-U.S. ASCII text in the header
fields of mail messages conforming to RFC 2822. It is
explained in RFC 2047.
4. Various IANA registration procedures for MIME-related
facilities, described in RFC 2048.
5. MIME conformance criteria, explained in RFC 20410.
The text consists of ASCII characters in the range 0 to 127. It
is the default for compatibility with RFC 2822. The text
consists of ISO characters in the range 0 to 255. All of the
ISO-8859 character sets are ASCII-based with national
language characters and other special characters in the
range 128 to 255.
The message body can contain multiple objects of
independent data types.

The body contains image data requiring a graphical display

or some other device, such as a printer, to display it. Two
subtypes are defined initially: jpeg and gif formats.
The body contains moving image data requiring an
intelligent terminal or multimedia workstation to display it. A
single subtype is defined initially: mpeg format.
Ques.6: Distinguish IPv4 and IPv6 addressing schemes.
Ans.6: Difference between IPv4 and IPv6 addressing
schemes:
The differences between IPV4 and IPV6 addressing schemes are
listed below:

Internet address
classes:
Multicast
addresses:
Broadcast
addresses:

Unspecified
address:
Loopback
address:
Address syntax:

Address prefix
syntax:

IPv4 Address

IPv6 Address

Applicable

Not applicable

IPv4 multicast
addresses(224.0.0.0/4)
Network broadcast, subnet
broadcast, all-subnets
directed broadcast, limited
broadcast.
0.0.0.0

IPv6 multicast
addresses(FF00::/8)
Not applicable

127.0.01

::1

Dotted decimal notation

Colon hexadecimal
format with
suppression of
leading zeros and
zero compression.
Embedded IPv4
addresses are
expressed in dotted
decimal notation.
Prefix length
notation only.
Global unicast
addresses
Site-local addresses
(FEC0::/10)

Prefix length or dotted

decimal notation.
Public IPv4 addresses
Private IPv4 addresses
(10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12,
and 192.168.0.0/16)
APIPA addresses

::

Link-local addresses

(169.254.0.0/16)

(FE80::/64)