Fundamentals of communication and networking

Question 1

What is serial and parallel data transmissions

Answer 1

Serial transmissions - Data is sent down one wire one bit after another
Parallel data transmission - Data is sent on several wires simultaneously

Question 2

Name two down sides of parallel transmission

Answer 2

Crosstalk - Occurs when the signal in one wire causes electrical interference with the signal on the neighbouring wires
Data skew - Data skew can occur that one or more bits can be read incorrectly by the receiver if the transmission is not correctly synchronised

Question 3

State the difference between sychronous and asychronous data

Answer 3

synchronous - both sender and receiver must be in sync this means that a common clock must be used and timing signal must be sent in addition to the data
Asynchronous - their is no common clock

Question 4

What is the purpose of a start and stop bit

Answer 4

Start bit - sent at the start of a message in order to provide timing data
Stop bit - A bit sent to mark the end of a message

Question 5

A parity bit may be added after a start bit what is its purpose

Answer 5

A parity bit is used for error detection by allowing the receiver to check if an even number of bits were altered

Question 6

In sychronous transmission what is transmitted other than the data itself.

Answer 6

A timing signal must be sent in addition to the data

Question 7

In asychronous transmission what is transmitted other than the data itself.

Answer 7

A start and stop bit at the beginning and end of data respectively

Question 8

What is baud rate

Answer 8

The number of state changes per second and is measured in Hz

Question 9

What is bit rate

Answer 9

The maximum number of bits that can be transferred per second and is calculated by multiplying the baud rate rate by maximum number of bits per signal

Question 10

What is bandwidth

Answer 10

describes the range of possible signals that can be sent in one signal

Question 11

What is Latency

Answer 11

The time taken for the first signal to reach its destination

Question 12

Describe a protocol

Answer 12

A set of rules or standards that networks must follow

Question 13

How is the total bit rate calculated

Answer 13

multiplying the baud rate rate by maximum number of bits per signal

Question 14

What term refers to the range of possible values in on received signal?

Answer 14

BANDWITH remember dumbass from last question

Question 15

What term refers to the time it takes for a signal arrive at a destination?

Answer 15

Latency :)

Question 16

What is a topology of a network

Answer 16

The physical or logical arrangement of connections in a network

Question 17

What is bus topology

Answer 17

A network arranged with a main cable or bus connecting all devices

Question 18

What is a star topology

Answer 18

A network arranged with a switch (or a hub) at the centre

Question 19

What is a switch and a link

Answer 19

A device that receives and forwards data on a network and a physical connect between two devices

Question 20

How can a network have a different physical topology and logical topology

Answer 20

A star network can send data to all devices and becomes a bus network

Question 21

What is a client-server network

Answer 21

A network in which clients make requests to server

Question 22

What is a client

Answer 22

A device which makes requests

Question 23

What is a client

Answer 23

A device which controls centralised access to a resource

Question 24

What is a peer-to-peer network

Answer 24

A network in which all devices are peers

Question 25

Advantages and Disadvantages of a client-server

Answer 25

Better security-software and security updates managed centrally

Data backups easier to manage as all in one place

Disadvantages
If server goes down then all clients are affected

Access times may be slow if the server gets too many requests from different clients at the same time.

More expensive
Hacker can target central server

Question 26

Advantages and Disadvantages of a peer-to-peer

Answer 26

Easy to set up

Less expensive to set up - doesn’t require specialist hardware
Network unaffected if one device fails

Disadvantages
Less secure all devices have to have software and security updates to run individually

Multiple versions of files on different devices

Each device needs to be backed up individually

Question 27

Wireless network

Answer 27

A network that allows devices to transmit data using radio frequencies

Question 28

Wireless access point(WAP)

Answer 28

A hardware device for allowing other devices to communicate using radio frequencies

Question 29

Wireless network adapter (WAN)

Answer 29

A hardware device for enabling devices to communicate using WI-FI

Question 30

Mac address

Answer 30

a physical address uniquely assigned to each piece of network hardware

Question 31

SSID

Answer 31

Service set identifier or name for a wireless network

Question 32

Whitelist

Answer 32

a list of things considered to be trustworthy or acceptable

Question 33

Main aim of CSMA/CA

Answer 33

carrier sense multiple acces/collsision avoidance a method of collision avoidance by checking for existing transmissions

Question 34

RTS/CTS

Answer 34

request to send/clear to send a method of collision avoidance by requesting clearance to transmit

Question 35

Packet Switching

Answer 35

the process of sending indiviudal packets on different routes to avoid bottle neck