GATE | GATE CS 2010 | Question 15

One of the header fields in an IP datagram is the Time to Live(TTL)field.Which of the following statements best explains the need for this field?
(A) It can be used to prioritize packets
(B) It can be used to reduce delays
(C) It can be used to optimize throughput
(D) It can be used to prevent packet looping


Answer: (D)

Explanation: Time to Live can be thought as an upper bound on the time that an IP datagram can exist in the network. The purpose of the TTL field is to avoid a situation in which an undeliverable datagram keeps circulating.

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