22-Elec-B4 Information Technology Networks: May 2017

Paper format. Engineers Canada / Professional Engineers of Ontario, National Examinations — May 2017, 16-Elec-B4 Information Technology Networks. Three hours, closed book, one approved Casio or Sharp calculator permitted. Five questions of 25 marks each; any four constitute a complete paper worth 100 marks, and the marks are printed in the left margin against every sub-part. All five questions are solved here, because this set is a study resource rather than an exam attempt.

Reference texts.

• A. Leon-Garcia and I. Widjaja, Communication Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill — the syllabus text for this paper (layering, medium access, transport, routing).
• J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 8th ed., Pearson — TCP congestion control, addressing and forwarding.
• A. S. Tanenbaum and D. J. Wetherall, Computer Networks, 5th ed., Pearson — the OSI reference model, Ethernet and ALOHA.
• T. S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., Pearson — frequency re-use, multipath fading and duplexing.
• ISO/IEC 7498-1 (OSI basic reference model), IEEE 802.3 (CSMA/CD), IEEE 802.11 (RTS/CTS), 3GPP TS 36.211 (LTE physical channels), RFC 5681 (TCP congestion control), RFC 1122 (loopback), RFC 950 (subnetting).

Canadian context. The spectrum, licensing and equipment-certification framework assumed throughout is the Canadian one: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) licenses the cellular bands under the Radiocommunication Act and publishes the Standard Radio System Plans (SRSP) that fix the duplex spacing referred to in Question 1(e), and Canadian carriers deploy the same 3GPP LTE numerology used in Question 1(b).