Computer Networks & Wireless
Communications
Transcribed Reference & Complete Study Compendium
1. Network Architecture & Standards
ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
6 Ethernet Origin Invented by Robert Metcalfe at Xerox PARC.
7 TCP/IP Origin Proposed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn.
8 WWW Origin The World Wide Web (WWW) was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.
9 IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi The standard was initially released in 1997.
10 PAN Coverage Personal Area Networks (PAN) typically cover a range of 10 meters.
11 MAN Example An example of a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is a network that
connects all faculty and libraries across a city wide institution.
12 CAN Definition CAN stands for Campus Area Network.
14 Peer-to-Peer In peer-to-peer architecture, every device must have both client and server
capabilities.
15 Bandwidth Definition Bandwidth is best described as the maximum data capacity of a
communication channel.
16 Five Nines Availability "Five Nines" availability (99.999%) corresponds to approximately 5 minutes
of downtime per year.
2. OSI & TCP/IP Reference Models
ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
17 OSI Model Release The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model was developed in 1984.
18 OSI Layers Count The OSI model has 7 layers.
19 Application Layer PDU The Protocol Data Unit (PDU) at the Application layer is called DATA.
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
20 Transport Layer PDU The PDU at the Transport layer is called Segment.
21 Network Layer PDU The PDU at the Network layer is called Packet.
22 Data Link Layer PDU The PDU at the Data Link layer is called Frame.
23 Physical Layer PDU The PDU at the Physical layer consists of Bits.
24 OSI Mnemonic Mnemonic to remember the OSI layers from Layer 7 to Layer 1: "All People
Seem To Need Data Processing".
25 Encapsulation Refers to the process of adding headers/trailers information at each layer as
data travels down the OSI stack.
26 Decapsulation Occurs at the receiver as data travels up the OSI stack.
27 CRC Layer The CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is added at the Data Link layer.
28 TCP Handshake Order The correct order of the three-way TCP handshake is SYN, SYN-ACK, and
ACK.
29 HTTP Port Standard HTTP web processing uses well-known port number Port 80.
30 HTTPS Port HTTPS is called Secured web processing and uses Port 443.
30b UDP Application UDP is generally preferred over TCP in Video Streaming and Voice over IP
(VoIP).
31 TCP/IP Layers Count The original TCP/IP model has 4 layers.
32 TCP/IP Mapping The Application layer of the TCP/IP model corresponds to the Application,
Presentation, and Session layers of the OSI model.
3. IP Addressing & Subnetting
ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
33 IPv4 Size An IPv4 address is 32 bits long.
34 IPv6 Size An IPv6 address is 128 bits long.
35 Class C Subnet Mask The default subnet mask for a Class C network is [Link] .
36 Private IP Ranges Which of these is a private IP address used by home routers:
[Link] - [Link] .
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
37 Loopback Address The IP address [Link] is known as the loopback address.
38 CIDR Notation /24 A /24 CIDR notation corresponds to a subnet mask of [Link] .
39 Subnet Capacity /26 A /26 prefix provide subnet provides how many usable addresses? 62
usable hosts.
40 ARP Protocol ARP is used to resolve an IP address to a MAC address.
41 DHCP Process The DHCP process is summarized by the acronym DORA which stands for:
Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge.
42 NAT Definition Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to translate a Private address to
a Public address.
43 IPv6 Feature IPv6 has the advantage of built-in security via mandatory IPsec support.
44 MAC Address Properties A MAC address operates at the Data Link layer and is a globally unique
physical address.
4. Data Transmission, Signal & Media
ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
45 Data Link Devices Layer 2 (Data Link layer) table entries mapping [Link] with a port
represent a default route entry inside a routing table.
46 Human Speech An example of Analog data: Human Speech, which uses continuous,
Representation varying wave forms.
47 Digital Signal State A digital signal uses discrete voltage levels to measure data: Two (0 and 1).
48 Frequency Unit Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz).
49 Period & Frequency The relationship between Period (T) and Frequency (f) is given by T = 1/f.
50 Wavelength Formula The wavelength (λ) is calculated using λ = v/f.
51 Nyquist Theorem Nyquist theorem formula for maximum bit rate of a noiseless channel is: 2 ×
B × log2(L).
52 Shannon Theorem Shannon theorem capacity of a noisy channel is given by: C = B × log2(1 +
SNR).
53 Digital Bandwidth Unit Digital bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps).
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
54 Standard Telephone A standard telephone channel has a bandwidth of approximately 3000 Hz.
Channel
55 Attenuation The reduction in signal strength as it travels is called Attenuation.
56 Guided Media Types Which transmission medium is immune to EMI: Fibre Optic Cable.
57 Jitter Definition Jitter refers to the variation in packet arrival time.
57a 100 Mbps Bit Window At 100 Mbps, how many bits in 1 microsecond? 100 bits are transmitted.
58 10G Ethernet Data Window A 10Gbps line transmits 10 billion bits per second (10 × 109).
60 Dispersion Effect Distortion in a transmitted signal is caused by different frequency
components travelling at different speeds.
61 Manchester Encoding Manchester encoding is primarily used in 10BASE-T Ethernet.
62 AM vs FM Resilience AM = Amplitude modulation; FM is more resistant to noise.
63 Standard Single Digital The standard bit rate of a single digital telephone channel is 64 kbps
Voice (calculated via 8000 samples/sec × 8 bits).
64 PCM Modern Encoding The 3 steps of Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) modification are: Sampling,
Steps Quantization, and Encoding.
65 ASK Modulation ASK modulation works by changing the Carrier Amplitude between two
values to represent binary data.
69 QAM Technique QAM stands for Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.
70 FDM Application FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) is best illustrated by Multiple FM
radio stations sharing the same air space.
71 TDM Function TDM allows multiple signals to share a channel by allocating discrete time
slots to each sign.
72 WDM Infrastructure WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is mainly used in Fibre Optic
cables.
5. Local Area Networks (LAN) & Data Link Layer
ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
73 Ethernet CRC Size A single CRC-32 is commonly used for error detection in an Ethernet frame.
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
75 Modern Switch duplex A modern switch Ethernet operates in full duplex mode.
76 Star Topology Core In a star topology, all devices connect to a central switch or hub.
77 Bus Topology Failure A disadvantage of bus topology is that a break in the backbone cable
disables the entire network.
78 Token Ring Control In a token ring (ring topology), access is controlled by a special frame called
a token.
79 Full Mesh Formula The number of links required for a full mesh topology with N end devices is:
N(N - 1) / 2.
80 Tree Topology Structure A tree topology is a hierarchical combination of Star and Bus topologies.
81 SLA Attributes An SLA protocol defining parameters and characteristics is a System
document.
82 IEEE Definition IEEE is responsible for Ethernet and wireless standards.
83 IETF Standards IETF maintains Internet standards published as RFC documents.
84 Circuit vs Packet Switching Circuit switching establishes a dedicated physical path, while packet
switching routing path is reserved dynamically.
85 CSMA/CD Action After a collision is detected in CSMA/CD: Send a jam signal and abort.
86 CSMA/CD Main Use CSMA/CD is mainly used to manage access on shared coaxial media.
87 Wi-Fi Access Management Wi-Fi networks use CSMA/CA for medium access management.
88 Regulatory Body Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regulates
telecommunications spectrum provisions in Nigeria.
89 UTP Acronym UTP stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair.
90 UTP vs STP Performance Compared to UTP, STP cables provide better noise shielding.
91 Cat 6 Cable Support A Cat 6 cable can support up to 10 Gbps speeds over short distances.
92 Ethernet UTP Max Distance The maximum speed/recommended segment run for Ethernet over Twisted
Pair is 100 meters.
93 RG6 Use Case RG6 is commonly used for Cable TV and broadband internet connections.
94 Single Mode Fibre Core A Single-mode fibre can transmit data without repeaters up to 50 km using
laser source pulses of light.
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
96 Repeater Layer A repeater operates at OSI Level 1 (Physical layer).
97 Hub Layer Domain A hub operates at Layer 1 and broadcasts all incoming traffic to all ports.
98 Switch Operational Layer A standard Switch operates at OSI Layer 2 (Data Link layer).
99 Router Operational Layer A Router operates at OSI Layer 3 (Network layer).
100 Firewall Layer Support A firewall operates at Layer 3 through Layer 7 to filter traffic based on
security rules.
101 Stateful vs Packet Filtering A stateful firewall differs from a packet filtering firewall because it tracks the
context of active connections.
102 Load Balancer Operation Load balancers typically operate at Layer 4 and Layer 7 of the network
structure.
103 NIC Operational Layer A Network Interface Card (NIC) operates at layers 1 and 2.
104 OUI Definition The OUI acronym means Organizationally Unique Identifier. It consists of
the first 24 bits of a MAC Address.
105 Broadcast MAC Address The Ethernet broadcast MAC address is FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF .
108 Edge Computing Edge computing improves performance by reducing latency through
localized storage and processing near the data source.
109 SDN Architecture Software-Defined Networking (SDN) enhances control by centralizing
networking control functionality.
111 5G Submarine Cable The Mainone submarine cable significantly handles internet capacity in
Nigeria.
112 DOCSIS Standard DOCSIS is the standard infrastructure over Coaxial cable TV network.
113 ONT Device An Optical Network Terminal (ONT) is used to terminate fibre optics
connections to a home.
114 Modem Origin The term MODEM is derived from Modulator-Demodulator.
115 ADSL Asymmetry ADSL is described as asymmetric because download speed is faster than
upload speed.
116 Smart Electricity Metering Smart electricity meters use Cellular/IoT technology infrastructure to report
metrics.
117 IaaS Example Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure provide Infrastructure as
a Service (IaaS).
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ID Concept / Topic Technical Specification / Description
118 SaaS Example Google G-mail is an example of Software as a Service (SaaS).
119 SIP Protocol SIP is a Session Initiation Protocol used to manage, set up, and terminate
voice/VoIP sessions.
120 RTP Protocol RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) runs over UDP to carry voice payloads.
121 G.711 Bit Rate The G.711 codec produces a bit rate of 64 kilobits/sec.
122 Cable Tester A cable tester is used to verify wire continuity and correct pin sequence in a
cable.
123 RJ45 Connector Pins An RJ45 connector has 8 pins.
124 Crossover Cable Use A crossover cable traditionally connects identical devices such as PC-to-PC
or Switch-to-Switch.
125 VLAN Main Purpose The main purpose of a VLAN is to create isolated broadcast domains within
a physical switch structure.
126 Strong Password Metric A strong password should be at least 12 characters long and contain a
mixed character set.
127 Hidden Node Problem The hidden node problem in wireless networks is addressed using RTS /
CTS (Request to Send / Clear to Send).
128 WEP Status WEP is considered completely broken and insecure.
129 MIMO Technology MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) improves Wi-Fi performance by using
multiple simultaneous antennas.
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