Temporal signals resulting from the boundaries of a participating medium subjected to a short-pulse laser source are investigated. Cases of both a single as well as a pulse-train consisting of multiple pulses are considered. Temporal variation of the incident laser pulse can be a step or a Gaussian function of time. Temporal evolutions of transmittance and reflectance signals, and incident radiation at various locations in the planar medium are studied for a wide range of the values of the extinction coefficient. The problem is analyzed using both the finite volume method and the discrete ordinates method. In all cases, results of both the methods are compared. An excellent agreement has been found. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.