SOME QUESTIONS ON TRANSMISSION MEDIA

You should answer the questions below on an individual basis. Answering the questions should provide you with an assessment on your understanding of the information contained within Chapter 2 pages 77 to 101 and Chapter 3 pages 175 to 190 of the Networking text by Andrew Tanenbaum. Once you have a complete set of solutions, you should use your First Class group discussion area to compare individual's answers and produce a unified set of solutions for the group. You should Email one set of group solutions to your tutor. Your tutor will consider the solutions and provide any necessary feedback. All questions below refer to the core Unit text, Computer Networks by Andrew Tanenbaum. - Third edition.

  1. What does the mathematics of a Fourier Series do?
  2. How would you describe the Bandwidth of a communications channel?
  3. How can the number of bits per second be increased, if the Baud is kept constant?
  4. Calculate the maximum number of bits that can be transferred down a communication channel with a frequency range of 300Hz to 3300Hz, and a Signal to Noise ratio of 20dB.
  5. Would you use a postal system for transporting data? Give reasons.
  6. What is a network 'broadband' cable?
  7. What is limiting the rate of transmission on current systems?
  8. What is a Multi-Mode Fibre?
  9. Give two advantages of wireless communications compared with wired.
  10. What is meant by the 'wavelength' of an electromagnetic wave?
  11. What is the purpose of Microwave 'dishes'?
  12. What applications are the Industrial/Scientific and Medical bands used for?
  13. What are the four fundamental functions of the Data Link Layer?
  14. How is the character code for DLE transmitted as data using the bisync prototocol?
  15. Explain with reasons, which method of data framing would you use at the Data Link Layer for the transfer of graphics and sound?
  16. Explain how bit stuffing facilitates the transparent transfer of the data bit sequence 01111110.
  17. Generate and combine Hamming code check bits for the data 1011.
  18. What does an error rate of 10^-6 per bit mean?
  19. What errors does a 16-bit CRC checksum detect?