NETWORK TERMINOLOGIES
1. Impact of network congestion on productivity
Network congestion occurs when a link or a node carries too much data that its normal capacity thus making its efficiency to be reduced. Some of the effects of network congestion include: queuing delays, blocking of new connections and packet losses in the network. (Floyd & Fall, 2009) Network congestion leads to an overall reduction in the network’s throughput. Network congestion usually affects the productivity of the network in the following ways:
i. Delay – whenever there is congestion in the network, users will have to wait for longer periods of time before their network tasks are complete. This implies that projects cannot be completed within the stipulated time due to the delays in execution of activities.
ii. Finances/ high costs – when there is network congestion, employees have to put in more man hours so as to be able to complete the given tasks. This will result into increased cost of production.
iii. Frustrations – congested networks are usually a frustration to the users. In some cases the networks may crash thus making it impossible for the accomplishment of planned tasks.
Network congestions are caused by users sending large amounts of data than what the network infrastructure can handle. Once the network is congested, the productivity of the network will be greatly reduced. (Floyd & Fall, 2009) It is therefore necessary to control network usage so as to prevent it from becoming overcrowded. This can be done in the following ways:
i. Increasing the bandwidth
ii. Compress data being transmitted
iii. Stop users from sending large amounts of data at one given time.
2. Use short answers to explain the difference between:
a) Synchronous and asynchronous
Synchronous communication is used in circuit switched networks while asynchronous communication is used in packet switched networks. When using synchronous communication between two nodes, a connection will have to be established first while when using the asynchronous communication there is no need of establishing a connection before the transmission of data.
b) Analog and digital
In analog communication, signals are continuous and can assume any value while in digital communication signals are discrete and assume specific values usually zeros and ones. The analog signals usually have a lot of noise during their transmission hence less efficient. Digital signals are very efficient and accurate thus preferred over analog signals. (Bush & Meyer, 2002)
c) XON and XOFF
XON/XOFF is a flow control by the actual data for communication between a sending and a receiving device. It is used for controlling the correct flow of data between devices. An XOFF character means stop sending data while the XON means resume sending data. (Bush & Meyer, 2002)
d) Simplex and duplex
Simplex communication is when a device can either send or receive data while in duplex communication a device can send and receive data at the same time. (Raggett, Dave & Tim, 2010)
e) Serial and parallel transmission
The main difference between parallel and serial communication is the number of wires at the physical layer which are used for transmission from a device. In parallel transmission, there is more than one wire while in serial transmission there are only two wires. In parallel transmission, both sending and receiving can be done at the same time while in serial transmission data cannot be sent and received at the same time. The processes take place at different times.
f) Baseband and broadband
When using baseband transmission, a single signal will utilize the entire bandwidth of the cable while in broadband transmission signals are sent on multiple frequencies thus making it possible for multiple signals to be transmitted on the same bandwidth. Baseband can carry both analog and digital signals while the broadband can only carry analog signals. (Schwartz, 1970)
g) Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) has more comprehensive framing mechanism while the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) has a single ended character. The PPP uses a flag to indicate the start and the end of a frame whereas the SLIP uses the ESC character to start or end the frame. (Schwartz, 1970)
h) Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
FTP is a two-way system which can be used to copy or moving files from a server to a client computer and also from a client computer to a server while a HTTP is a one-way system which is used for transferring texts and other data from a server to a client computer. HTTP systems encode their data in MIME format while the FTP system encodes their data in binary sets. (Raggett, Dave & Tim, 2010)
i) Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP)
TCP is found on layer four of the OSI model and transports data from the source to the destination. It is also used for carrying out management jobs. The Internet protocol is not used for the management purposes and majorly carries the addresses that are necessary for sending data from the source to the destination. (Bush & Meyer, 2002)
References
Floyd, S. and K. Fall. (2009) Promoting the Use of End-to-End Congestion Control in the
Internet IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking,
Gary Kessler: An Overview of TCP/IP Protocols and the Internet
Mischa Schwartz (1970). Information, Transmission, Modulation and Noise: A Unified
Approach to Communication Systems. McGraw-Hill.
R. Bush; D. Meyer (2002), Some Internet Architectural Guidelines and Philosophy, Internet
Engineering Task Force,
Raggett, Dave; Berners-Lee, Tim. (2010) Hypertext Transfer Protocol Working Group". World
Wide Web Consortium.
