the network and protocol processes

1. Outline

This assignment will test your knowledge with regard to the protocol stack, its working and packet headers. By the time you attempt this assignment, you should have a clear understanding of how packets are transmitted across the network. Please refer to the recommended text book for help with writing this technical report.

2. The Task

Discuss, in a report of 2000-2500 words, the network and protocol processes that occur in the network when you access X-Stream from a remote location, such as your home.

How you address this question is essentially up to you, particularly as the details of the particular system you consider will vary. However MUST should include consideration of:

•    Changes to packet headers as data traverses through the protocol stack andthrough the network.
•    The role of specific protocols in the context of the above task.
•    The processes that occur in the end systems with respect to the data.
•    What happens in the various parts of the network, as data travels between thehost and the X-Stream Server.

You don’t necessarily need to use wire-shark, but it might be useful to justify your statements with wire-shark screenshots. This is entirely up to you. You need to concentrate on the topics you learnt in the lab and the lectures. Describe the topics you learnt in context of the assignment. You need not consider in detail what happens in the Browser or Web Server.

A good answer will demonstrate a clear and concise understanding of all the processes that occur and their inter-relationships. You may wish to structure your answer around the TCP/IP stack, but this is by no means the only approach. Similarly, you may wish to take a Top-Down or a Bottom-Up approach. You could cover the topic in a “broad brush” way and then discuss some aspects of it in more detail. The approach you take is up to you.