Mis589 Week 3 Questions/Answers

1 What does the data link layer do?

THE DATA link layer (also called layer 2) is responsible for moving a message from one computer or network device to the next computer or network device in the overall path from sender or receiver. It controls the way messages are sent on the physical media. Both the sender and receiver have to agree on the rules or protocols that govern how they will communicate with each other. A data link protocol determines who can transmit at what time, where a message begins and ends, and how a receiver recognizes and corrects a transmission error. In this chapter, we discuss these processes, as well as several important sources of errors.

(Fitzgerald, 2009)

10 Describe four types of noise. Which is likely to pose the greatest problem to network managers?

Line noise and distortion can cause data communication errors. The focus in this section is on electrical media such as twisted-pair wire and coaxial cable, because they are more likely to suffer from noise than are optical media such as fiber-optic cable. In this case, noise is undesirable electrical signals (for fiber-optic cable, it is undesirable light). 

White noise or Gaussian noise (the familiar background hiss or static on radios and telephones) is caused by the thermal agitation of electrons and therefore is inescapable. Even if the equipment were perfect and the wires were perfectly insulated from any and all external interference, there still would be some white noise. White noise usually is not a problem unless it becomes so strong that it obliterates the transmission. In this case, the strength of the electrical signal is increased so it overpowers the white noise; in technical terms, we increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

Impulse noise (sometimes called spikes) is the primary source of errors in data communications. Impulse noise is heard as a click or a crackling noise and can last as long as 1/100 of a second. Such a click does not really affect voice...