45
votes
Accepted
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
When the world was younger, and computers weren't all glorified PCs, word sizes varied (a DEC 2020 we had around here had 36 bit words), format of binary data was a contentious issue (big endian vs ...
- 13.9k
24
votes
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
One advantage that might be overlooked is the ability to experiment. If you're shoving bits down the tube, you're going to need to write some utility that translates ...
- 349
14
votes
Accepted
TCP Connection Termination - FIN, FIN ACK, ACK
A TCP implementation might send a standalone FIN in the first closing segment. However, it can also send a FIN ACK, instead.
The latter is strictly better: the implementation can bundle a "free" ACK ...
- 14.4k
9
votes
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
It's not that many internet protocols are text based. In fact, if I were to guess I'd say that text based protocols are in the minority. For almost every text based protocol you see on the internet ...
- 669
7
votes
What is the best you can do with a noisy message?
Suppose that $k \ll n$. In that case, your friend can send you the index of the first door containing a treasure. Of the $k$ numbers you get, you pick the smallest one. If $k$ is small enough compared ...
- 275k
6
votes
Accepted
Could a standardized ternary system be more efficient than the binary system?
Whether this is more efficient depends on the physical properties of the medium, not on any fundamental principle of computer science. And of course there's no reason to limit yourself to ternary ...
D.W.♦
- 156k
5
votes
If the two generals problem is unsolvable how can we human beings agree on things?
Because we don't need guaranteed assurance that something will happen when we have sufficient experience that tells us what is likely to happen. For example, let's say that a friend wants to meet up ...
- 151
5
votes
Accepted
What are the underlying mechanisms allowing us to unsend an email?
The e-mail system has no way of manipulating already sent e-mails, no.
The only services I've seen which allow you to "unsend" an e-mail simply delay the e-mail being sent for a user-determined ...
- 66
5
votes
Accepted
ip/tcp packet decoding without wireshark
My guess is that what you are seeing is a Level 2 Ethernet frame and therefore the preamble is missing. Also the Ethernet checksum seems to be missing. In this case everything seems to line up (the ...
- 28.2k
3
votes
Compute the union of two sets between two endpoints minimizing communication complexity
You can do this with $O(K \log N)$ bits of communication on average, where $K$ is the size of $|(A\setminus B) \cup (B\setminus A)|$, assuming you are willing to use a non-interactive protocol and are ...
D.W.♦
- 156k
3
votes
Accepted
Is data received after transmission immediately stored and can that be recovered?
Briefly, communication between two hosts/peers on a network occurs by means of network sockets. Roughly a socket is pair (IP,PORT) of numbers which uniquely identifies a host on a network. So, when a ...
- 9,757
3
votes
Accepted
IP Fragmentation
The IP packet has to include the TCP headers in its payload.
Hence we find additional 20 bytes, beyond the 3523 bytes of the sent data (the TCP payload). The total 3543 byes then get fragmented as ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Serial communication and parity bit
You may find contradictory answers because there are many kinds of serial communication protocols. Some are LSB first, some are MSB first.
For example, for the old RS232 standard and siblings, the ...
- 1,851
3
votes
What is a "name/variable of base type" in applied $\pi$-calculus?
“Base type” is a type that isn't built from other types. Types built from other types include data structures (e.g. lists, arrays, pairs, …), functions, etc. In the context of the pi-calculus, base ...
3
votes
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
Your question can be interpreted in three ways:
Why is numerical data transmitted in textual representation, as if it had been printed with e.g. printf()?
Why do ...
3
votes
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
Structured binary also has limitations in expanding it. It my days of working with FidoNet and building a gateway between it and UUCP/USNET, Fidonet's message headers were a structured binary. ...
- 31
3
votes
Link utilization of sliding window protocol
Link utilitization is about the steady state, i.e., what happens when you send a lot of data... not what happens at startup (at the very beginning of the connection).
Imagine you have a humongous ...
D.W.♦
- 156k
3
votes
Accepted
Convolutional and Linear block codes
A memoryless channel is one where the probability of an error at a particular bit is independent of what happened at all prior bit positions. A channel can have memory if errors are correlated across ...
D.W.♦
- 156k
3
votes
Looking for two-way communication/consensus/contract algorithm for use in marriage proposal
If you're feeling up for something particularly geeky, you might enjoy a fair exchange protocol, either one based on gradual release (see e.g., this paper) or one based on Bitcoin (e.g., this). The ...
D.W.♦
- 156k
3
votes
Basic Question in networking - why max data size of ip datagram 65535 BYTES and not 65535 bits?
16 bits is not the size of the IP datagram; it is the amount of bits required to encode its length. Hence, you can have datagrams of length up to 65536 octets (i.e., bytes), as described in RFC 760:
...
- 4,979
3
votes
Is a "protocol" a set of algorithms and data structures?
is a protocol a pack of algorithms and programming source codes? (in both the computer and network)
No. A protocol is an abstract description of how systems communicate. Source code could be an ...
- 13.2k
3
votes
Accepted
why use bellman-ford instead of Dijstra in RIP routing?
Bellmon Ford is used by distance vector routing protocol (DVR). In DVR technique router keep knowledge of only next router which is adjacent that's why exchange of routing database only with neighbors....
- 346
2
votes
Accepted
Difference between CRC and Hamming Code
CRC is conceived as the remainder of a polynomial division. It is efficient for detecting errors, when the calculated remainder does not match. Depending on the CRC size, it can detect bursts of ...
- 1,851
2
votes
Difference between CRC and Hamming Code
Both CRC and the Hamming code are binary linear codes. One significant difference is that the Hamming code only works on data of some fixed size (depending on the Hamming code used), whereas CRC is a ...
- 275k
2
votes
Why are so many internet protocols text-based?
Another reason for this is that textual protocols are easier to interoperate with, and a lot more flexible for the future. Older generations, especially the folks behind Unix, already went through the ...
- 31
2
votes
Accepted
The throughput of the ALOHA protocol if the Binomial distribution was used
I don't think it makes sense to use the binomial distribution.
The point of using the Poisson distribution is that network nodes are assumed to want to transmit with an exponential distribution at ...
- 81.4k
2
votes
Accepted
Resending old frame when a damaged frame has been received in one bit sliding window protocol
Shouldn't it be the case that client A now sends a frame with the sequence number inverted, new data but the acknowledgement is not inverted?
This could indeed be done when the error occured in the ...
- 1,304
2
votes
Accepted
Link utilization of sliding window protocol
I had the same doubt and was getting nowhere close to grasp the concept. After banging my head for a few days I now think I have understood the basic concept. We define utilization as the total time ...
2
votes
Why is RTS/CTS optional?
Besides RTS and CTS, there are a few other "optional" signals such as DTR, DCD,...
These signals are mostly about checking if the other end of the cable is ready. Ready can mean that the internal ...
- 1,851
2
votes
When packets are not full?
The space isn't used if there isn't data to send. If you're writing a letter, you write as much as you need and you don't insist that the last page must be full of writing. And you don't wait until ...
- 81.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible