UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2014/2015
ORDINARY EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 2311 NETWORK SYSTEMS DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT
DATE: APRIL, 2015 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question ONE and any other TWO
QUESTION ONE
a) Describe the functions of the following WAN devices:
(i) Modem (2 Marks)
(ii) CSU/DSU (2 Marks)
b) (i) A receiving host has failed to receive all of the segments that it should
acknowledge. What can the host do to improve the reliability of this
communication session? (2 Marks)
(ii) What kind of cable should be used to establish a trunked line between two
Catalyst switches? (1 Mark)
(iii) Assuming you build networks to exact specifications, what is the
recommended maximum length a 10BaseT cable can be before it has to be
segmented or repeated? (1 Mark)
(iv) Describe the differences between half-duplex and full-duplex Ethernet.
(2 Marks)
c) The convergence of the many different communication media onto a single
network platform is fueling exponential growth in network capabilities. There are
three major trends that are contributing to the future shape of complex
information networks. Discuss. (6 Marks)
d) Discuss briefly the factors that should be considered when selecting a WAN
service. (6 Marks)
e) Networks must support a wide range of applications and services, as well as
operate over many different types of physical infrastructures. In this regard
discuss the following concepts:
(i) Fault Tolerance (4 Marks)
(ii) Scalability (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) Describe the functions of the following hardware troubleshooting tools:
(i) Cable analyzers (2 Marks)
(ii) Portable Network Analyzers (2 Marks)
b) (i) The KCAU corporate LAN consists of one large flat network. You decide
to segment this LAN into two separate networks with a router. What will
be the affect of this change? (2 Marks)
(ii) If a host on a network has the address 172.22.48.14/30, what is the address
of the subnetwork to which this host belongs? (2 Marks)
(iii) How do you express the binary number 11110011 in decimal form?
(2 Marks)
c) Describe the following:
(i) Workgroup (2 Marks)
(ii) Domain (2 Marks)
(iii) Client/server network (2 Mark)
d) Explain any four benefits of creating a computer network. (4 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) State four major benefits of VLANs. (4 Marks)
b) Explain the following :
(i) Storage Area Networks (SAN). (2 Marks)
(ii) Virtual Private Network (VPN) (2 Marks)
c) Discuss briefly Network Management under the following headings:
(i) Network Documentation (4 Marks)
(ii) Network Security (5 Marks)
d) What factors would you take into account when choosing between a layer 3 switch
and a router? (3 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) When planning the installation of LAN cabling, there are four physical areas to
consider: Work area, Telecommunications room, also known as the distribution
facility, Backbone cabling, also known as vertical cabling and Distribution
cabling, also known as horizontal cabling. Discuss. (8 Marks)
b) After you have determined the location of all of the network devices, you are
ready to install the network cables. If you are going to install the cable yourself,
all of the necessary materials should be available at the site, as well as a blueprint
of the network’s physical topology. Outline the process for physically creating a
network. (7 Marks)
c) While troubleshooting a connectivity problem on the network, you issue the ping
command from your PC command prompt, but the output shows “request times
out.” At which OSI layer is this problem associated with? Explain. (3 Marks)
d) A host computer has been correctly configured with a static IP address, but the
default gateway is incorrectly set. Which layer of the OSI model will be first
affected by this configuration error? Explain. (2 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Describe any four major benefits associated with hierarchical network designs.
(8 Marks)
b) Explain briefly four benefits of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). (4 Marks)
c) What five issues were considered during the development of IPv6? (5 Marks)
d) State the three major characteristics of WANs. (3 Marks)
