Mid Term Review

1
Mid Term Review
Organizational Communications and
Technologies Prithvi Rao H. John
Heinz III School of Public Policy and
Management Carnegie Mellon University
2
Objectives

• Present a guideline for study for the mid term
  exam
• Review topics from the class lectures up to Oct
  5th 1999
• Identify readings that are relevant. All readings
  that have been assigned in the lecture notes are
  included as sources for exam questions.

3
Readings
William Stallings and Richard Van Slyke
Business Data Communications
Third Edition Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 12 Papers cited in the class web-site
will not be a source for questions but reading
them will help in answering some questions
4
Possible Question Format

• Essay type will expect you to provide
  explanations beyond citing information in the
  notes. These questions are intended to evaluate
  your thinking based on information in the notes
  and readings. These will be less than a single
  page in length
• Multiple choice will provide you with various
  choices where one or more answers are correct and
  you will be asked to select one of several
  choices.
• PLEASE MAKE YOUR WRITING LEGIBLE

5
Evolution of PC-Lans

• Driving force behind the evolution of the PC Lan
• Centralized vs the decentralized paradigm
• Advantages and disadvantage
• Organizational structures evolving from?
• Centralized steep functional communications
  supported by?
• PC networks are ? Communication systems (will
  have choices to replace the question markpart of
  a question)
• Enterprise networks are ?
• Issues that network managers must cope with in
  the future
• First stand-alone mainframe could connect to
  mainframes?

6
Network Classification and Standards

• Various classification issues
• Connection oriented vs non-connection oriented
• OSI model and its layers
• How many layers
• What do they do
• Name other protocol models
• Why do they exist
• Open systems vs proprietary systems
• Goals of the open systems movement
• Have they been successful

7
Network Data

• Error Handling and related issues
• Various kinds of sampling
• Requirements of synchronous communication
• Manchester encoding schemes
• How to recover from errors
• Bandwidth of media

8
Network Design and Token Ring Cabling

• Issues in decentralization
• Issues in performance of network
• Client / Server definition
• Cabling issues
• Issues in Network Interface Card (NIC)
• Various kinds of media
• When do you use which media

9
Network Components and Equipment

• Components of a network
• Various kinds of servers
• Functionality of client workstations
• Hubs
• Backbones

10
Network Layouts and Topology

• Various topologies presented
• Definition of network topology
• Fault isolation on linear bus topology
• Trouble shooting
• Token ring configuration issues

11
Media Access Protocols

• Familiarization with media access protocols
• Token ring definition and features
• Kinds of stations in token ring and their purpose
• Types of broadcast media access
• Difference in the Ethernet 2 and 802.3 framing
• Service Access Points definition and purpose
• DSAP ?

12
Network Operating Systems

• What are NOS and why are they required?
• What do they facilitate in a networked
  environment
• What do client / server operating systems include
• Describe various layers of the OSI model
• IP operates at which level?
• Discuss difference between client/server and
  peer-to-peer
• Which is more efficient?

13
Internetworking Networks

• Issues in internetworking
• Repeaters definition and functionality
• Layer at which repeater works
• Bridges definition and functionality
• Layer at which bridge works
• Routers definition and functionality
• Layer at which routers work
• Comparison in of above
• Performance
• Functionality

14
Domain Name System

• DNS issues in internetworking
• Definition and historical perspective
• How are IP addresses assigned
• What are some future issues with IP address
  assignment
• Resource type in DNS what are they for?
• Operational steps

15
Network Debugging Tools

• Use of network debugging tools
• List common tools
• What do they do (not detailed explanation)