CmpE 475 Fall 2000 Project
Assigned: 29.11.2000
Due:  The Final Exam Date

The simulator by Tannenbaum provides a playground for experimenting with data link protocols.
The simulator and all its associated files could be obtained by anonymous ftp from

  http://orkinos.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/netlab/courses/cmpe475/softwaretools.htm
  file sim.tar

Read all parts of the brief documentation to understand the protocol implementations and the simulator. The code is not trivial so take your time to master it. You need to run the simulator in UNIX environement (you have your accounts in yunus.cmpe.boun.edu.tr) or port it to PC environment.

The purpose of this project is to understand the implementation of data link layer protocols and to make a study of protocol performance, measured in payloads (frames) delivered per second, as a function of the checksum error rate (depending on BER of the physical line, a parameter), lost packet rate (a low value probability as a parameter), and timeout interval (also a parameter).  For example, you can provide graphs showing payloads/sec (frames/sec) as a function of timeout interval, for various error rates, etc.

The specific goal is to compare the performance of protocols 5 and 6 in detail with respect to payloads/sec and number of retransmissions for a wide variety of parameters. You decide on parameters so that you have meaningful comparisons. Write a detailed report showing under which circumstances protocol 5 or 6 are better. You also need to provide the source code of your design on a floppy.

Note that all students work indivudually and design their own experiments, their parameters and ranges of the parameter values.

The text of this manuscript is in http://orkinos.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/netlab/courses/cmpe475

M. Ufuk Çağlayan