Unit 1: INTRODUCTION - Practice Quiz

1 What is a computer network?

2 Which of the following is a network that covers a small geographic area, such as a home or office?

3 The Internet is an example of which type of network?

4 Which network topology features all nodes connected to a single central cable?

5 Which topology requires a central controller or hub?

6 Which network device operates at the physical layer and simply broadcasts incoming data to all its ports?

7 Which device connects different networks and routes data packets based on their IP addresses?

8 Which device is smarter than a hub because it forwards data only to the specific port where the destination device is connected?

9 What is the small unit of data transmitted over a network called?

10 Which address is unique to the network interface card (NIC) and physically hardcoded onto the device?

11 What does IP stand for in IP Address?

12 How many bits are in an IPv4 address?

13 How many layers are there in the OSI model?

14 What is the topmost layer of the OSI model?

15 What does TCP stand for?

16 How many layers are generally recognized in the original TCP/IP model?

17 Which of the following is a standard protocol used for sending emails?

18 Which protocol is primarily used for transferring web pages on the World Wide Web?

19 In the OSI model, which layer is responsible for routing packets from source to destination?

20 What is the length of a standard MAC address?

21 Which of the following scenarios best justifies the implementation of a Wide Area Network (WAN) rather than a Local Area Network (LAN)?

22 In a star topology, if the central node fails, what happens to the network?

23 Which network device operates at the Data Link layer and forwards frames based on MAC addresses?

24 Why is a router considered more intelligent than a switch?

25 If a device moves from one network to another, which of its addresses typically changes?

26 What is the primary purpose of subnet masking in relation to an IP address?

27 During data encapsulation in the OSI model, what happens as data moves from the Transport layer to the Network layer?

28 Which layer of the OSI model is responsible for reliable process-to-process delivery and error recovery?

29 Which of the following correctly pairs a TCP/IP layer with its corresponding OSI layers?

30 In the context of network software architecture, what is the role of a protocol?

31 A network administrator notices high collision rates on a network segment connected by a hub. What is the most effective hardware change to resolve this?

32 Given the IP address and a subnet mask of , what is the network address?

33 Which of the following protocols operates at the Network layer of the OSI model?

34 Why is layering an important concept in network software architecture?

35 Which topology requires a multi-point connection where all devices share a single communication cable?

36 Which characteristic is essential for a system to be defined as a 'Computer Network'?

37 In an IPv4 header, what is the purpose of the Time to Live (TTL) field?

38 If a user is browsing a website, at which layer of the TCP/IP model is the HTTP protocol functioning?

39 What distinguishes a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) from a LAN and a WAN?

40 In a fully connected mesh topology with devices, what is the formula for the total number of physical links?

41 A network topology consists of a central router connecting three subnets. Subnet A has a 24-port switch with 10 hosts, Subnet B has a 16-port hub with 8 hosts, and Subnet C has two 8-port switches connected to each other, hosting 12 hosts in total. How many broadcast domains and collision domains exist in this entire network, respectively?

42 In the context of the TCP/IP protocol suite, which of the following best describes the architectural anomaly of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) calculating its checksum?

43 Host A (, ) wants to send an IP packet to Host B (, ). The default gateway for Host A is Router R1 (, ). Assuming Host A's ARP cache is empty, what will be the destination MAC address of the very first frame transmitted by Host A?

44 A cut-through switch receives a frame of bytes at a rate of Gbps. If the switch needs to read the first bytes (Ethernet header) to determine the destination port before forwarding, what is the minimum theoretical switching delay introduced by the switch itself, ignoring propagation and processing delays?

45 In a layered network architecture, Layer provides a service to Layer . If an -byte payload from Layer is passed to Layer , and Layer adds an -byte header but has a Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of bytes (where ), which of the following accurately describes the behavior at Layer ?

46 Which of the following scenarios describes a function explicitly mapped to the Presentation Layer of the OSI model but is entirely absent as a distinct layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite, often handled by the application itself?

47 Consider a fully connected mesh network with nodes. If the cost of laying a cable is per link, and the network designer decides to switch to a star topology using a single central switch (costing , with cable cost remaining per link), what is the cost difference between the two designs?

48 An IPv4 datagram has a total length of bytes (including a -byte header). It needs to traverse a link with an MTU of bytes. How many fragments are generated, and what is the 'Fragment Offset' value of the final fragment?

49 Analyze the following MAC address: . Based on IEEE standards, what type of address is this, and what is its specific use case in networking?

50 In comparing a highly distributed Wide Area Network (WAN) using satellite links to a localized Local Area Network (LAN) using Gigabit Ethernet, which of the following performance constraints is overwhelmingly the dominant factor in determining the Round Trip Time (RTT) for a -byte packet in the WAN?

51 An application requires strict synchronization points to ensure that long file transfers can resume from the last checkpoint rather than starting over if the connection drops. In the OSI model, which layer is explicitly responsible for inserting these synchronization points?

52 A router receives an IP packet destined for . Its routing table has the following entries: Route 1 (), Route 2 (), Route 3 (), and a Default Route. Which route will the router choose and why?

53 In a packet-switched network, Host A sends a MB file to Host B across links (2 routers in between). Each link has a bandwidth of Gbps and a propagation delay of ms. Assume the file is broken into packets of bytes each, and processing/queuing delays are negligible. What is the approximate total time to transmit the file from A to B?

54 Which of the following statements represents a fundamental distinction between the OSI model and the TCP/IP reference model regarding connection-oriented and connectionless services?

55 At the Transport Layer, multiplexing and demultiplexing are critical functions. How does a TCP/IP stack uniquely identify a specific socket to correctly demultiplex incoming TCP segments to the correct application process?

56 If a host is configured with the IP address and a subnet mask of , what is the limited broadcast address and the directed broadcast address for this specific subnet, respectively?

57 In a CSMA/CD network using a hub, as the number of active nodes () transmitting data simultaneously increases, what is the asymptotic behavior of the network's throughput?

58 Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the concept of 'statistical multiplexing' in computer networks?

59 A Virtual Private Network (VPN) connecting two geographically separated corporate LANs over the public Internet is an example of what type of network architecture?

60 In the context of network layer protocols, what is the primary architectural purpose of a Service Access Point (SAP) in the OSI model?