Posted: August 18th, 2016

Briefly discuss how polling could be used to overcome this problem, and discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of this approach.

In modern switched Ethernet networks, it is not unusual for a router to receive more traffic than it is able to forward due to the relative speeds of the Ethernet network versus the links from the router to other networks or the Internet. In such circumstances, packets would be randomly dropped either by the router or by the interconnecting switch when buffers are filled. Briefly discuss how polling could be used to overcome this problem, and discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of this approach. b) Prior to the development of full-duplex Ethernet, Token Bus networks provided a means through which communication could be achieved on a shared medium without collisions. Briefly describe how devices transmitted on a network using Token Bus (ignore token management) and discuss the performance token bus as transmission speed increases. c) Collisions and broadcasts have a negative impact on the throughput of an Ethernet network. i) Describe how collisions and broadcasts influence the throughput on an Ethernet network using a bus topology. ii) Repeaters, hubs, bridges, and switches are all devices that can be used in the construction of Ethernet networks. Briefly discuss how each of these devices would influence the impact of collisions and broadcasts within a single Ethernet network. Hint: VLANs divide a network into two or more networks and is irrelevant to this question.