KISII UNIVERSITY

NAME: KENNEDY ASIMBA MOMANYI

REGNO: PS22/00013/21

FACULTY: PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE

COURSE: BIOMETRY AND INFORMATICS

UNITNAME: DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING

UNITCODE: COMP207

TASK: CAT 2
QUESTIONS

a) With the aid of a diagram, explain the functions of the layers of OSI Model and state the
networking devices in each of the layers. (6marks)

Diagram for layers of OSI Model

Physical layer 1

Data link layer 2

Transport layer 3

Network layer 4

Session Layer 5

Presentation layer 6

Application layer 7

Physical layer- It helps you to define the electrical and physical specifications of the data
connection. This level establishes the relationship between a device and a physical transmission
medium.

It uses Hub, NIC, Cable and wireless as a networking device.

Data link layer- It corrects errors which can occur at the physical layer. The layer allows you to
define the protocol to establish and terminates a connection between two connected network
devices.
It uses Switch, Bridge and access Point as networking devices.

Transport layer – It builds on the network layer to provide data transport from a process on a
source machine to a process on a destination machine. It is hosted using single or multiple
networks, and also maintains the quality of service functions.

It uses Firewall as a networking device

Network layer- It provides the functional and procedural means of transferring variable length
data sequences from one node to another connected in “different networks”. Message delivery at
the network layer does not give any guaranteed to be reliable network layer protocol.

It uses Router as a networking device.

Session Layer- It controls the dialogues between computers. It helps you to establish starting
and terminating the connections between the local and remote application. This layer request for
a logical connection which should be established on end user’s requirement. This layer handles
all the important log-on or password validation.

It uses Gateway as a networking device.

Presentation layer- It allows you to define the form in which the data is to exchange between
the two communicating entities. It also helps you to handles data compression and data
encryption.

Application layer- It interacts with an application program, which is the highest level of OSI
model. The application layer is the OSI layer, which is closest to the end-user. It means OSI
application layer allows users to interact with other software application.
b) With the aid of a diagram, describe the construction of fiber optic media. (2marks)

Diagram

Fiber core

Cladding 125 μm

Tight buffer 900 μm

Strength members

Cable Jacket

Construction

It consists of a very thin fiber of silica or glass or plastic of a high refractive index called the
core. The core has a diameter of 10 μm to 100 μm. The core is enclosed by a cover of glass or
plastic called cladding. The refractive index of the cladding is less than that of the core .The
difference between the two indices is very small of order 10-3. The core and the cladding are
enclosed in an outer protective jacket made of plastic to provide strength to the optical fiber. The
refractive index can change from core to cladding abruptly or gradually.

c) With the aid of diagrams, describe Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). (3marks)
FDDI is deployed in a dual-ring topology. Each dual-attached station (DAS) attaches to both
rings; the second ring is on standby.

A sample FDDI network Diagrams

Dual
attached
stations

FDDI

Counter rotating
fiber ring

If there is a failure of a station or a link on the ring, a ring wrap occurs, creating a single ring for
continued communication. Access to the ring is by the use of a token (as in Token Ring).

d) Distinguish between passive and active security threats [2 marks]

Active Attack Passive Attack

In an active attack, Modification in While in a passive attack, Modification in the
information takes place. information does not take place.
Active Attack is a danger to Integrity as Passive Attack is a danger to Confidentiality.
well as availability.
In an active attack, attention is on While in passive attack attention is on detection.
prevention.
Due to active attacks, the execution While due to passive attack, there is no harm to the
system is always damaged. system.
In an active attack, Victim gets informed While in a passive attack, Victim does not get
about the attack. informed about the attack.
e) Distinguish between symmetric key encryption and public key encryption [2 marks]

Symmetric key encryption use the same (private, secret) key for encryption/decryption, while
public key encryption uses both a public and a private key. Both parties should know the key in
symmetric key encryption, while there is no such requirement for the public key encryption.
Only, either one of the keys is known by the two parties in public key encryption. Because this
removes the need to share your private key (as in symmetric key encryption) and the risk of
having it compromised, public key encryption can be considered more secure in this regard.

But a major disadvantage of public key encryption is that it is many times slower than symmetric
key encryption. So, symmetric key encryption may be better for encrypting large amounts of
data. Furthermore, public key encryption algorithms must use a comparatively stronger key than
symmetric key encryption to achieve the same strength (for the simple reason that one key is
made public in public key cryptography).

f) Illustrate how a digital signature can be used to authenticate a message. (1marks)

Authenticating the sender of a message and ensuring message integrity. Digital signatures are
used to verifying a message is from the expected sender. In email, Secure/Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions (S/MIME) protocol is typically used to digitally sign messages. A hash value of
the sender's message is created and encrypted with the sender's private key to create a digital
signature. The message and the digital signature are sent to the recipient where the sender's
public key is used to decrypt the digital signature and compute the hash of the message. The
computed hash is compared with the hash from the received message, and any difference in the
hash values signify the message did not originate from the sender and has been alerted in transit.

g) Explain how data is transmitted along a fiber optic cable. (6 marks)

h) Identify physical characteristics of fiber optic cables that make more suitable for high speed
digital data transmission than copper cables. (3marks)

i)Describe what is meant by wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and explain how

it is used to deliver high rate of data transmission over a fiber optic cable [3 marks

j) Explain the purpose of a transponder in satellite transmission [2 marks]

Note:
Assignment given is an individual assignment

It should be done in softcopy and changed to pdf submitted to [email protected] by

23rd march 5pm

Reference

https://www.ccexpert.us/ccda-2/fiber-distributed-data-interface.html

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-active-attack-and-passive-attack/