Lecture 1

1. What is a computer network?

• A computer network consists of two or more computers connected by
some kind of transmission medium– Such as a cable or air waves
• In order to access the Internet, a computer has to be able to connect to a
network

2. Network components
Hardware components needed to turn a stand-alone computer into a
networked computer:
– Network interface card is an add-on card plugged into a
motherboard expansion slot that provides a connection
between the computer and the network
– Network medium is a cable that plugs into the NIC and makes
the connection between a computer and the rest of the
network
▪️Network media can also be the air waves, as in wireless networks
– Interconnecting device allows two or more computers to
communicate on the network without having to be
connected directly to one another.

Network software can be divided into the following categories:

– Network clients and servers
▪️Network client software requests information stored on another network
computer or device
▪️Network server software allows a computer to share its resources
– Protocols
▪️Network protocols define the rules and formats a computer must use
when sending information across the network.
– NIC driver
▪️NIC drivers receives data from protocols and forwards this data to the
physical NIC.
3. What is internetwork?

An internetwork is a networked collection of LANs tied together by devices

such as routers.

4. Internet, Intranet, and Extranet

The Internet is a worldwide public internetwork

Uses protocols such as TCP/IP and HTTP to transfer and view information.
An extranet allows limited and controlled access to internal resources by
outside users.
An intranet is a private internetwork in which devices and servers are only
available to those users connected to the internal network.

5. TCP/IP Communication Process (midterm)

6. OSI and TCP/IP Model Comparison

• The OSI model divides the network access layer and the application layer
of the TCP/IP model into multiple layers.
• The TCP/IP protocol suite does not specify which protocols to use when
transmitting over a physical medium.
• OSI Layers 1 and 2 discuss the necessary procedures to access the media
and the physical means to send data over a network.
 Lecture 2
1. What is an Ethernet LAN?
• It is a combination of user devices, LAN switches, and different kinds of
cabling. Each link can use different types of cables, at different speeds.
• However, they all work together to deliver Ethernet frames from the one
device on the LAN to some other device.

2. The difference between multimode and single mode

Single-Mode Fiber
a. Very small core
b. Uses expensive lasers
c. Long-distance applications
Multimode Fiber
d. Larger core
e. Uses less expensive LEDs
f. Up to 10 Gbps over 550 meters

3. Fiber-Optic Cabling Usage

 Fiber-optic cabling is now being used in four types of industry:
 Enterprise Networks - Used for backbone cabling applications and
interconnecting infrastructure devices
 Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) - Used to provide always-on broadband
services to homes and small businesses
 Long-Haul Networks - Used by service providers to connect countries
and cities
 Submarine Cable Networks - Used to provide reliable high-speed,
high-capacity solutions capable of surviving in harsh undersea
environments at up to transoceanic distances.
4. Data Link Sub Layer
• The Data Link Layer consists of two sublayers. Logical Link Control (LLC)
and Media Access Control (MAC).
– The LLC sublayer communicates between the networking software at the
upper layers and the device hardware at the lower layers.
– The MAC sublayer is responsible for data encapsulation and media access
control.

5. Half and Full Duplex Communication

Half duplex: The device must wait to send if it is currently receiving a frame;
in other words, it cannot send and receive at the same time.
• Used on WLANs and legacy bus topologies with Ethernet hubs.

Full duplex: The device does not have to wait before sending; it can send
and receive at the same time.
• Ethernet switches operate in full-duplex mode

6. Multimedia and access control methods

A multiaccess network is a network that can have two or more end devices
attempting to access the network simultaneously.
Some multiaccess networks require rules to govern how devices share the
physical media. There are two basic access control methods for shared
media:
• Contention-based access
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detect (CSMA/CD) is used
on legacy bus topology Ethernet LANs.
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) is
used on wireless LANs.
• Controlled access
• Legacy Token Ring
• Legacy ARCNET
 Lecture 3

1. ARP and NDP

• The process that a source host uses to determine the destination MAC
address associated with an IPv4 address is known as Address Resolution
Protocol (ARP).
• The process that a source host uses to determine the destination MAC
address associated with an IPv6 address is known as Neighbor Discovery
(ND)

2. Learning and Forwarding

 Learning: Examine the Source MAC Address

Every frame that enters a switch is checked for new information to learn. It
does this by examining the source MAC address of the frame and the port
number where the frame entered the switch.
 If the source MAC address does not exist, it is added to the table
along with the incoming port number.
 If the source MAC address does exist, the switch updates the refresh
timer for that entry. By default, most Ethernet switches keep an entry
in the table for 5 minutes.

 Forwarding: Find the Destination MAC Address

If the destination MAC address is a unicast address, the switch will look for
a match between the destination MAC address of the frame and an entry in
its MAC address table.
If the destination MAC address is in the table, it will forward the frame out
the specified port.
If the destination MAC address is not in the table, the switch will forward
the frame out all ports except the incoming port. This is called an unknown
unicast.
3. Switching forwarding method

Store-and-forward switching: This frame forwarding method receives the

entire frame and computes the CRC.

Cut-through switching: This frame forwarding method forwards the

frame before it is entirely received. At a minimum, the destination address
of the frame must be read before the frame can be forwarded.

Lecture4
1. Benefits of VLAN Design 4

2. What is VLAN trunking. 3

▪ VLANs would not be very useful without VLAN trunks. VLAN trunks allow
all VLAN traffic to propagate between switches. This enables devices
connected to different switches but in the same VLAN to communicate
without going through a router.
▪ A trunk is a point-to-point link between two network devices that carries
more than one VLAN. A VLAN trunk extends VLANs across an entire
network.

3. VLAN Tagging 3
 ▪ The standard Ethernet frame header does not contain information about
the VLAN to which the frame belongs.
▪ When Ethernet frames are placed on a trunk, information about the
VLANs to which they belong must be added. This process, called tagging.

4. Why Inter-VLAN routing is required? 4

• VLANs are used to segment switched Layer 2 networks for a variety of

reasons. Regardless of the reason, hosts in one VLAN cannot communicate
with hosts in another VLAN unless there is a router or a Layer 3 switch to
provide routing services.
• Inter-VLAN routing is the process of forwarding network traffic from one
VLAN to another VLAN. There are three inter-VLAN routing options:
• Legacy Inter-VLAN routing- This is a legacy solution. It does not scale well.
• Router-on-a-Stick - This is an acceptable solution for a small to medium-
sized network.
• Layer 3 switch using switched virtual interfaces (SVIs)- This is the most
scalable solution for medium to large organizations

5. Unknown unicast frame 3

An unknown unicast frame is when the switch does not have the
destination MAC address in its MAC address table and must forward the
frame out all ports, except the ingress port. A switch received the same
MAC address from its different ports.

6. Problem if there’s a Layer2 loop 3

A Layer 2 loop can result in MAC address table instability, link saturation,
and high CPU utilization on switches and end-devices, resulting in the
network becoming unusable.
7. Compare about the loop control between Layer2 and Layer3.

• Layer 2 Ethernet does not include a mechanism to recognize and

eliminate endlessly looping frames. Ethernet and Ethernet switches have no
comparable mechanism for limiting the number of times a switch
retransmits a Layer 2 frame.
• Both IPv4 and IPv6 include a mechanism that limits the number of times a
Layer 3 networking device can retransmit a packet. A router will decrement
the TTL (Time to Live) in every IPv4 packet, and the Hop Limit field in every
IPv6 packet. When these fields are decremented to 0, a router will drop the
packet.
• STP was developed specifically as a loop prevention mechanism for Layer2
Ethernet.

8. RSTP Port States and Port Roles

 There are only three port states in RSTP that correspond to the three
possible operational states in STP. The 802.1D disabled, blocking, and
listening states are merged into a unique 802.1w discarding state.
 Root ports and designated ports are the same for both STP and RSTP.
However, there are two RSTP port roles that correspond to the
blocking state of STP. In STP, a blocked port is defined as not being the
designated or root port. RSTP has two port roles for this purpose.

9. Port Channel
When an EtherChannel is configured, the resulting virtual interface is called
a port channel. The physical interfaces are bundled together into a port
channel interface
[Link] Ether Channel Protocol and their functions
EtherChannels can be formed through negotiation using one of two
protocols, Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) or Link Aggregation Control
Protocol (LACP). These protocols allow ports with similar characteristics to
form a channel through dynamic negotiation with adjoining switches. The
EtherChannel is then added to the spanning tree as a single port.

Lecture 5

1. Subnetting and Subnet mask

• Subnetting is a technique used to break down (or partition) networks into
subnets. The subnets are created through the use of subnet masks.
• The subnet mask identifies what bits in the IP address are to be used to
represent the network/subnet portion of an IP address.
 Lecture 6

1. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

• The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for IPv4 service

automates the assignment of IPv4 addresses, subnet masks, gateways, and
other IPv4 networking parameters.
• DHCP is considered dynamic addressing compared to static addressing.
Static addressing is manually entering IP address information.
• When a host connects to the network, the DHCP server is contacted, and
an address is requested. The DHCP server chooses an address from a
configured range of addresses called a pool and assigns (leases) it to the
host.
• Many networks use both DHCP and static addressing. DHCP is used for
general purpose hosts, such as end user devices. Static addressing is used
for network devices, such as gateway routers, switches, servers, and
printers.

2. Domain Name Service (DNS)

• Domain names were created to convert the numeric IP addresses into a

simple, recognizable name.
• Fully-qualified domain names (FQDNs), such as [Link] are
much easier for people to remember than [Link].
• The DNS protocol defines an automated service that matches resource
names with the required numeric network address. It includes the format
for queries, responses, and data.
3. When a device inside the stub network wants to communicate with a
device outside of its network, what does it do?

When a device inside the stub network wants to communicate with a

device outside of its network, the packet is forwarded to the border router
which performs the NAT process, translating the internal private address of
the device to a public, outside, routable address.

4. In the network scenario shown in Figure-2, a private internal network

communicates with the Internet using NAT. The following IP addresses are
involved:
1. Internal host IP: [Link]
2. Router’s inside local IP: [Link]
3. Router’s inside global IP: [Link]
4. External web server IP: [Link]
Identify and explain which of the above IP addresses correspond to the
following NAT terms: Inside Local, Inside Global, Outside Local, and Outside
Global.
 Lecture 7

1. Network layer function

• Forwarding: When a packet arrives at a router’s input link, the router
must move the packet to the appropriate output link. Forwarding refers to
the router-local action.
• Routing: The network layer must determine the route or path taken by
packets as they flow from a sender to a receiver. The algorithms that
calculate these paths are referred to as routing algorithms. Routing refers to
the network-wide process.

2. Router function
The primary functions of a router are to determine the best path to forward
packets based on the information in its routing table, and to forward
packets toward their destination.

3. Routing Table Principle

 Every router makes its decision alone, based on the information it has
in its own routing table.
 The information in a routing table of one router does not necessarily
match the routing table of another router.
 Routing information about a path does not provide return routing
information

4. Administrative Distance (AD)

The router uses Administrative Distance (AD) to decide which route to
install in the IP routing table. AD indicates the reliability or trustworthiness
of the routing source — the lower the AD, the more trusted the source.
5. Scenarios of static route
Static routes are commonly used in the following scenarios:
• As a default route forwarding packets to a service provider
• For routes outside the routing domain and not learned by the dynamic
routing protocol
• When the network administrator wants to explicitly define the path for a
specific network
• For routing between stub networks
Static routes are useful for smaller networks with only one path to an
outside network. They also provide security in a larger network for certain
types of traffic, or links to other networks that need more control.

6. Feature of Static and Dynamic Routing

7. Floating Static Route

Floating static routes are static routes that are used to provide a backup
path to a primary static or dynamic route. The floating static route is only
used when the primary route is not available.

Lecture 8
1. Passive Interface of OSPF
OSPF messages are forwarded out all OSPF-enabled interfaces. However,
these messages only need to be sent out interfaces that are connecting to
other OSPF-enabled routers.
Sending out unneeded messages on a LAN affects the network in three
ways:–
 Inefficient Use of Bandwidth- Available bandwidth is consumed
transporting unnecessary messages.
 Inefficient Use of Resources- All devices on the LAN must process and
eventually discard the message.
 Increased Security Risk- Without additional OSPF security
configurations, OSPF messages can be intercepted with packet
sniffing software. Routing updates can be modified and sent back to
the router, corrupting the routing table with false metrics that
misdirect traffic.

Lecture 10
1. Categories of AP

APs can be categorized as either autonomous APs or controller-based APs.

• Autonomous APs – Standalone devices configured through a command
line interface or GUI. Each autonomous AP acts independently of the others
and is configured and managed manually by an administrator.

• Controller-based APs – Also known as lightweight APs (LAPs). Use

Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) to communicate with a WLAN
controller (WLC). Each LAP is automatically configured and managed by the
WLC.

2. IEEE 802.11 Frame Structure

Address 1: MAC address of wireless host or AP to receive this frame
Address 2: MAC address of wireless host or AP transmitting this frame
Address 3: MAC address of router interface to which AP is attached
Address 4: used only in ad hoc mode
 Lecture 11

1. OSI Security Architecture

 Security attack - Any action that compromises the security of
information owned by an organization
 Security mechanism - A process (or a device incorporating such a
process) that is designed to detect, prevent, or recover from a
security attack
 Security service - A processing or communication service that
enhances the security of the data processing systems and the
information transfers of an organization.
- Intended to counter security attacks, and they make use of
one or more security mechanisms to provide the service.

2. Attacks

3. What is vulnerability and what can it attack?

Vulnerability is the degree of weakness in a network or a device. Some
degree of vulnerability is inherent in routers, switches, desktops, servers,
and even security devices. Typically, the network devices under attack are
the endpoints, such as servers and desktop computers.

Lecture 12
1. Goals of LAN Security
• Access Control – Restrict unauthorized users/devices.
• Segmentation – Use VLANs and ACLs to separate traffic.
• Integrity – Prevent tampering with MAC tables and ARP caches.
• Availability – Protect against DoS inside LAN.
• Monitoring – Detect abnormal behavior via IDS/IPS, syslogs, SNMP

2. Types of DHCP attacks and mitigation

Two types of DHCP attacks are DHCP starvation and DHCP spoofing. Both
attacks are mitigated by implementing DHCP snooping.

Lecture 13
1. Relation between Data Center and Cloud

Data centers are the physical facilities that provide the compute, network,
and storage needs of cloud computing services. Cloud service providers use
data centers to host their cloud services and cloud based resources.

2. What is single point of failure and server sprawl? How to solve with
virtualization?

• When a component fails, the service that is provided by this server

becomes unavailable. This is known as a single point of failure.
• Dedicated servers were generally underused. They often sat idle for long
periods of time, waiting until there was a need to deliver the specific service
they provide. These servers wasted energy and took up more space than
was warranted by the amount of service provided. This is known as server
sprawl.
Server virtualization takes advantage of idle resources and consolidates the
number of required servers. This also allows for multiple operating systems
to exist on a single hardware platform.
The use of virtualization normally includes redundancy to protect from a
single point of failure.

3. Hypervisor and types of it

The hypervisor is a program, firmware, or hardware that adds an
abstraction layer on top of the physical hardware.
• A Type 2 hypervisor is software that creates and runs VM instances. The
computer, on which a hypervisor is supporting one or more VMs, is a host
machine. Type 2 hypervisors are also called hosted hypervisors.
• Type 1 hypervisors are also called the “bare metal” approach because the
hypervisor is installed directly on the hardware. Type 1 hypervisors are
usually used on enterprise servers and data center networking devices.
4. IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the digitization of our everyday world through
the use of networked microprocessors and microcontrollers along with
sensors, actuators, motors, and other I/O devices, plus the software that
makes it all work together