Mid Term Review
Organizational Communications
and Technologies
Prithvi Rao
H. John Heinz III School of Public
Policy and Management
Carnegie Mellon University
Objectives
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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.
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
Possible Question Format
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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
Evolution of PC-Lans
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Driving force behind the evolution of the PC Lan
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Centralized vs the decentralized paradigm
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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 mark…part of a question)
Enterprise networks are ?
Issues that network managers must cope with in the future
First stand-alone mainframe could connect to mainframes?
Network Classification and
Standards
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Various classification issues
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Connection oriented vs non-connection oriented
OSI model and its layers
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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
Network Data
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Error Handling and related issues
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Various kinds of sampling
Requirements of synchronous communication
Manchester encoding schemes
How to recover from errors
Bandwidth of media
Network Design and Token
Ring Cabling
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Issues in decentralization
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Issues in performance of network
Client / Server definition
Cabling issues
Issues in Network Interface Card (NIC)
Various kinds of media
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When do you use which media
Network Components and
Equipment
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Components of a network
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Various kinds of servers
Functionality of client workstations
Hubs
Backbones
Network Layouts and Topology
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Various topologies presented
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Definition of network topology
Fault isolation on linear bus topology
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Trouble shooting
Token ring configuration issues
Media Access Protocols
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Familiarization with media access protocols
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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 ?
Network Operating Systems
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What are NOS and why are they required?
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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
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Which is more efficient?
Internetworking Networks
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Issues in internetworking
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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
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Performance
Functionality
Domain Name System
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DNS issues in internetworking
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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
Network Debugging Tools
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Use of network debugging tools
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List common tools
What do they do (not detailed explanation)