Exam 1 Study Guide

Topic List

• OSI and TCP conceptual models

  • Communication Protocols and their properties
  • Communications Protocol vs. Transmission Medium
  • Layers of Abstraction (Encapsulation and Decapsulation)

• Physical Layer

  • Properties of Different Connection Types (Twisted Pair / Optical / Wireless)
  • Different Channel Types
  • Problems with Hubs and Software solutions

• JavaScript Memory Management

  • Pass by Copy of a reference
  • Higher Order Functions
  • Closures

• Asynchronous Programming

  • Libuv's Internals and how they interact with v8
  • How to implement synchronous behavior using asynchronous functions.
  • How to go from multiple concurrently executing functions into a single synchronous function.

• Data Link Layer

  • MAC addresses
  • Ethernet Frame Structure
  • Ethernet vs. 802.11 Frames
  • Frame Check Sequence Data Integrity Algorithm
  • Network Switch device discovery
  • Hidden Node Problem

   

Format

Blackboard Exam, 100 minutes, 7-8 Long Form, and 1 Coding Question. No Backtracking on Questions.

The exam will have a curve based on average performance of all sections combined.

The exam will consist of:

1. Multiple long form questions where students are asked to explain a protocol, algorithm, or architecture. I'm not interested in searchable definitions, students must demonstrate a strong understanding of the topic by going into the details about the inner workings with examples.

   Most questions will have the majority of its points awarded for detailing your answer

   (eg. what [1pt] and why / how [9pt])

   Answers should be about 1~2 paragraph in length, but if you can answer more succinctly that's fine.

   For each question I'm looking for relevant keywords, protocols/algorithms, definitions, properties, names of component elements, and, examples.

2. There will be one programming question worth 25% based directly on Assessment 1.

   All solutions to exam questions for this course must use callbacks, no points will be awarded for solutions that use promises or async/await notation. setTimeout usage is also banned.

   You will be supplied a partially filled out js file and asked to write a function.

   You will then upload the completed js file.

Allowed

• Open Book / Notes
• Search Engines allowed, but if you are relying heavily on them you won't pass, there's not enough time.

I don't condone using answers found on search engines, but I do not restrict it either. (It is allowed)

All results must be in your own words. No points will be awarded for answers copy and pasted from the Internet.

The exam is extremely time limited. It is designed such that if you are well prepared you should finish just on time. If you have to take the time to learn the answer during the exam, you will not be able to complete most of it.

Students who source answers from the Internet that differ from the explanations I've supplied and don't have evidence to support their understanding will be awarded minimal points.

Past examinees that sourced most of their answers from Google Search on average scored below 25%, so while it may be useful in a pinch if there's a particular term you forgot the name of, but I recommend you stick to your notes for the most part.

Not Allowed

• Asking for help

• Giving help

• Revealing exam questions or answers

• Using someone else's notes for the exam

  All submitted code in this course will be passed through Stanford Moss.

  This is NOT a group exam.

  You are forbidden from getting or receiving exam assistance.

  All exam questions will be tagged with unique identifiers (barcodes / watermarks / rephrasings / typos / etc...) Your TA's and I will be monitoring student resource repositories (like Chegg, Reddit, StackOverflow, ...), as well as student Discord, Whatsapp, and WeChat groups that may have been formed.

  Should a leaked exam question be traced back to any individual student, all parties involved will immediately fail the course and be reported to the Office of Student Conduct for disciplinary measures.

  I have zero-tolerance for any form of academic dishonesty.

   

Pretest Preparation

20 minutes before the exam starts:

• Have your notes available.

• Have a browser open, one tab on Blackboard, another on the course webpage.

• Make sure you have node version 14+ installed.

• Have vscode open (or an editor of your choice)

  (run your programs through Terminal instead of the vscode's built in debugger)

• There will be 100 points and 100 minutes total. Spend no more than the point value in minutes per question. (If a question is worth 25 points, spend no more than 25 minutes on it) Use a timer app on your phone to set up timers before starting each question.

  A pen and paper may be helpful too

After the Exam

There will be an affidavit you need to fill out after the exam on Blackboard, it will be immediately available after the completion of the exam.

Rules and consequences regarding leaking questions continue to apply after you have completed the exam. Due to exams taking place at different times, and some students having health-related rescheduling's, please wait until the following week for all students to have completed the exam before engaging in any post exam discussions.

Contact

If you have technical difficulties during the exam I will be accessible via Blackboard Collaborate and email, contact me immediately so I can log and troubleshoot the issue.