Unit 1: Basics of Networking - Practice Quiz

1 What is data communication?

2 Which component carries data from a sender to a receiver?

3 What is the main purpose of a communication network?

4 What is a device connected to a communication network commonly called?

5 What is a network protocol?

6 Which protocol element defines the meaning of each part of a message?

7 Which transmission impairment causes a signal to lose strength as it travels?

8 What is an unwanted signal that disrupts data transmission called?

9 What is a key advantage of using a layered network architecture?

10 In a layered architecture, what does each layer generally provide to the layer above it?

11 Which type of network usually covers a small area such as an office or school building?

12 Which type of network commonly spans countries or continents?

13 In which network model do dedicated servers provide services to client devices?

14 In a peer-to-peer network model, how do devices usually interact?

15 Which network provides global connectivity by linking networks worldwide?

16 Which device commonly forwards data between a local network and other networks?

17 Which medium is commonly used for wireless network communication?

18 Which technology is commonly used to create a wireless local area network?

19 How many layers are in the OSI reference model?

20 What is a defining feature of a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET)?

21 A temperature sensor sends 1,000-byte readings every 2 seconds. Ignoring protocol overhead, what is the minimum average data rate required?

22 Two IoT devices must exchange data simultaneously in both directions over a communication link. Which transmission mode best satisfies this requirement?

23 In a smart factory, every sensor connects to a central switch. If one sensor cable fails, the remaining sensors must continue communicating. Which topology is being used?

24 A gateway divides incoming messages into small units, forwards them through intermediate nodes, and reassembles them at the destination. Which networking technique does this describe?

25 An IoT application changes its message format, but the transport service and network addressing remain unchanged. Which benefit of protocol architecture does this demonstrate?

26 A receiver obtains the bit sequence correctly but interprets the first field as a device ID instead of a message length. Which protocol element is inconsistent between the devices?

27 A wireless sensor signal becomes weaker as its distance from the gateway increases, even though no additional interfering transmitter is present. Which impairment is dominant?

28 A communication channel has a signal power of 20 mW and a noise power of 0.2 mW. What is its signal-to-noise ratio in decibels?

29 A router receives a frame, removes its link-layer header, examines the destination address, and then creates a new frame for the next link. Which header normally remains meaningful across the entire route?

30 A received frame fails its error-detection check before its payload is delivered upward. Which layer should normally discard the corrupted frame?

31 A university connects networks in several buildings across the same city using a high-speed provider backbone. Which network type best describes the resulting infrastructure?

32 A fitness band communicates directly with its owner's phone over a range of a few meters. Which network type is the most appropriate classification?

33 Several IoT nodes request time synchronization from one dedicated server, while none of the nodes provides that service to the others. Which network model is illustrated?

34 A set of nearby devices shares files directly, and each device can both request and provide files without a dedicated server. Which network model is most suitable?

35 A smart-home sensor uses a private IPv4 address and must send data to a cloud service on the public Internet. Which gateway function commonly enables this communication?

36 A sensor can communicate with devices on its local subnet but cannot reach a cloud server on another network. Its IP address and subnet mask are correct. Which configuration should be checked first?

37 Two wireless sensors are both within range of an access point but cannot hear each other. Their simultaneous transmissions repeatedly collide at the access point. Which wireless problem is occurring?

38 A battery-powered sensor must send a small status update once per hour. Which radio strategy is most likely to extend its battery life?

39 An application requires reliable, ordered delivery of configuration commands to an IoT gateway. Which TCP/IP transport protocol is the better choice?

40 In a mobile ad hoc network, node A cannot directly reach node C, but both nodes can reach node B. How can A send data to C without fixed infrastructure?

41 A sensor transmits a 1200-byte frame over a 2 Mbps link with a one-way propagation delay of 15 ms. Ignoring processing and queuing delays, which value is closest to the time from the first transmitted bit until the last bit arrives?

42 A network must remain connected after any single link failure while minimizing redundant links. Which topology provides the most direct structural basis for this requirement?

43 A receiver accepts duplicate application messages because a transport protocol retransmits after a timeout, but the original message had already arrived. Which mechanism most directly prevents duplicate application effects?

44 A binary channel has a bandwidth of 1 MHz and an SNR of 15. Using Shannon's capacity formula, which statement is correct about a target data rate of 5 Mbps?

45 An application requires reliable delivery, but the underlying network layer may lose, duplicate, or reorder packets. Which layer responsibility best matches this requirement?

46 A wearable sensor communicates with a nearby smartphone, which forwards data through a campus network to a cloud gateway. Which classification best describes the complete arrangement?

47 A protocol stack must support applications that use either reliable byte streams or connectionless datagrams without changing the network layer. Which design principle does this illustrate?

48 A device can reach every node on its local subnet but cannot reach an external server, while the default gateway can reach that server. Which fault is most likely?

49 Two wireless transmitters cannot detect each other but both can reach the same receiver. When they transmit simultaneously, frames collide at the receiver. Which problem is this?

50 A TCP segment is carried inside an IP packet, which is placed in an Ethernet frame. Which ordering correctly represents encapsulation from the application layer downward?

51 In a MANET, node A reaches node C through node B. Node B moves out of range, but A and C remain within direct radio range. What should a reactive routing protocol generally do?

52 A link has a bit error probability of and carries independent 10,000-bit frames. Approximately what fraction of frames is expected to contain at least one bit error?

53 A packet traverses three store-and-forward links. Each link has a transmission rate of 10 Mbps, each router adds 2 ms processing delay, and the propagation delay on each link is 5 ms. For a 1,000-byte packet with no queuing, what is the end-to-end delay?

54 A protocol change modifies only the format of messages exchanged between two transport endpoints. Which condition allows lower layers and applications to remain unchanged?

55 A copper link exhibits increasing attenuation at higher frequencies, causing the received edges of digital pulses to overlap. Which impairment most directly explains the resulting intersymbol interference?

56 A router decrements a packet's lifetime field and discards it when the field reaches zero. In the OSI model, which layer primarily owns this function?

57 A system uses a service-oriented architecture in which each layer hides implementation details and exposes only defined operations to the layer above. What is the main benefit?

58 An IoT node uses a private address and can initiate Internet connections through a gateway, but unsolicited Internet hosts cannot directly initiate connections to it. Which mechanism most likely causes this behavior?

59 A wireless link experiences deep signal fades at some locations because direct and reflected paths arrive with phase differences. Which technique most directly reduces this effect?

60 An application sends data faster than the receiver can process it, even though the network path has available capacity. Which TCP mechanism is designed to control this condition?