Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division

Second Semester 2009-2010
Mid-Semester Test (EC-1 Regular)

Course No. : IS ZC462
Course Title : NETWORK PROGRAMMING
Nature of Exam : Closed Book
Weightage : 40%
Duration : 2 Hours
Date of Exam : 06/02/2010 (FN)
Note:
1. Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.
2. All parts of a question should be answered consecutively. Each answer should start from a fresh page.
3. Mobile phones and computers of any kind should not be used inside the examination hall.
4. Use of any unfair means will result in severe disciplinary action.

Q.1 (a). Write the silent features of TCP? Why there is UDP although TCP exists?
Q.1 (b). Why do sockets provide the interface from upper three layers of OSI model
into transport layer? [4 + 3 = 7]

Q.2 (a). List three examples, when signals are generated in the scenario of client-server
based network applications?
Q.2 (b). Write a pseudocode program demonstrating the generation and use of signal
handlers which is catching the SIGUSR1 signal and SIGALARM signal.
[3 + 4 = 7]
Q.3 (a). Why a network programmer should not leave any zombies around in the client-
server based network applications?
Q.3 (b). How do fork() and exec() functions differ? How many new processes will be
created if the following sequence is executed: fork ( ); fork ( ); fork ();
Q.3 (c). What are the significant aspects of TIME_WAIT state of TCP with respect to
network programming? [3 + 3 + 3 = 9]
Q.4. Write only a TCP server program which can handle multiple simultaneous client
requests. Your server takes port number as a command line argument and starts
listening for a transmission from the clients. Your server should send Welcome
message whenever any client connects to your server and then it logs the IP
address and port no. of the connected clients in a file. Once the server received the
reply of its sent Welcome message, it will send the current day and time as a
response. Your program will take care of zombies creation. You may assume that
the corresponding client program has already implemented. [9]
Q.5. Write a program using pipes and signals for full duplex communication between
two processes, parent and child. The parent reads a string from stdin and sends it to
the child through the pipe. The child reads it, if string contains numerals it ignores
them, and converts to uppercase the remaining string after removing numerals
from string and sends the changed string back to parent. The parent reads it and
displays it in stdout. Parent should take input from standard input until NULL is
given as input string. You should handle multiple occurrences of SIGINT signal.
During the process of run, if user is typing Ctr+C or Del for more than once,
program should not terminate. It should continue asking for input and displaying
the reverse. [8]
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No. of Pages = 1
No. of Questions = 5