INFO1112: Tutorial for Week 12
The goal of this tutorial is to understand the communication from a source to a destination. In
particular, it focuses on the characteristics that affect the communication latency and the multiple
delays involved.
1. In modern packet-switched networks, including the Internet, the source host segments long
application layer messages (for example an image or a music file) into smaller packets and sends
the packets into the network. We refer to this process as message segmentation. The receiver then
reassembles the packets back into the original message.
Fig. 1 illustrates the end-to-end transport of a message with and without message segmentation.
Consider a message that is 8 × 106 bits long that is to be sent from source to destination in Figure
1. Suppose each link in the figure is 2 Mbps. Ignore propagation queuing and processing delays.
(a) End-to-end message transport without message segmentation
(b) End-to-end message transport with message segmentation
Figure 1: Difference with and without message segmentation
i. Consider sending the message from source to destination without message segmentation.
How long does it take to move the message from the source host to the first packet switch?
Keeping in mind that each switch uses store-and-forward packet switching, what is the
total time to move the message from source host to destination host?
ii. Now suppose that the message is segmented into 800 packets, with each packet being
10,000 bits long. How long does it take to move the first packet from source host to the
first switch? When the first packet being sent from the first switch to the second switch,
the second packet is being sent from the source host to the first switch. At what time will
the second packet be fully received at the first switch?
iii. How long does it take to move the file from source host to destination host when message
segmentation is used? Compare this result with your answer in part (i) and comment.
2. Consider two hosts A and B, connected by a single link of rate R bps. Suppose that the two hosts
are separated by m meter, and suppose the propagation speed along the link is s meters/sec. Host
A is to send a packet of size L to host B.
i. Express the propagation delay, dprop, in terms of m and s.
ii. Determine the transmission time of the packet, dtrans, in terms of L and R.
iii. Ignoring processing and queuing delays, obtain an expression for the end-to-end delay.
iv. Suppose host A begins to transmit the packet at time t = 0. At time t = d trans, where is the
last bit of the packet?
v. Suppose dprop is greater than dtrans. At time dtrans, where is the first bit of the packet?
vi. Suppose dprop is less than dtrans. At time dtrans, where is the first bit of the packet?
vii. Suppose s = 2.5 × 108 , L = 120 bits and R = 56 kbps. Find the distance m so that dprop =
dtrans.