Exercise $1.$ Imagine you are a Network engineer in charge of setting up the network between UC Irvine and UC Berkeley. You are given two options for network configurations as given below:

$($a$).$ A direct link from Irvine to Berkeley has a link of approximately $660km$ with a propagation speed of $2**{10}^8\frac{m}{s}$ and a transmission rate of $0\mathrm{.}5Mbs.$

$($b$)$ A link which is connected from Irvine to Santa Barbara with a distance of $250km$ with a propagation speed of $2\mathrm{.}5**{10}^8\frac{m}{s}$ and transmission rate of $2Mbps.$ Then, Santa Barbara to Berkeley with a distance of $600km$ with a propagation speed of $2**{10}^8\frac{m}{s}$ and transmission rate of $4Mbps.$

Which option would you go with so that there is the least propagation delay?

Now, assume that packets are sent with a packet length of $1000$ bits. Find end$-$to$-$end delay for both configurations$($ignore any processing and queuing delays$).$ What option would you choose to have