COMP 4320 Introduction to Computer Networks - Final Review

Practice flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the COMP 4320 lecture notes on computer networks.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

The simplest connectionless transport protocol that does not ensure reliable delivery of packets.

TCP Congestion Control

Methods used in TCP to adapt to network congestion for efficient data transmission.

Flow Control in TCP

A mechanism to prevent the receiver’s buffer from being overflowed by preventing too much data from being sent too quickly.

Sliding Window in TCP

A method that allows a sender to send multiple packets before needing an acknowledgment for the first one, controlling the amount of data in transit.

Three-Way Handshake

The process used by TCP to establish a connection by exchanging three messages: SYN, SYN-ACK, and ACK.

Well Known Ports

Specific port numbers that are assigned to common protocols like HTTP (80), FTP (21), and DNS (53).

Congestion Notification (DECbit)

A bit in the packet header indicating congestion status in the network, allowing the sender to adjust its transmission rate.

Public-Key Cryptography

A cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption.

Digital Signature

A means of verifying the authenticity and integrity of a message by using a sender's private key to create a hash that can be verified using the sender's public key.

Packet Filtering

A method utilized by firewalls where packets are analyzed and allowed or blocked based on predefined rules.

Affine Cipher

A type of substitution cipher where each letter in the plaintext is mapped to its numeric equivalent, transformed using a linear equation.

Network Security Basics

Fundamental principles of protecting networks, including concepts like confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA).

DNS (Domain Name System)

A hierarchical service that translates human-friendly domain names (URLs) into IP addresses.

TCP Segment Header Format

The structure of a TCP segment, which includes fields like source port, destination port, sequence number, acknowledgment, and flags.

Fast Retransmit

A mechanism in TCP that allows for immediate retransmission of lost packets without waiting for a timeout, triggered by receiving duplicate ACKs.

Congestion Avoidance

The phase in TCP that occurs when the congestion window exceeds a threshold; it shifts from exponential growth to linear growth of the transmission rate.