A338/A538
Weekly Reading Assignments.

Last Updated: Monday March 24, 2008

KEY:

LAN = Local Area Networks A Business-Oriented Approach (2^nd Edition).

LAN-CD = Material from CD-ROM accompanying Local Area Networks A Business-Oriented Approach (2^nd Edition).

MSNET = Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking (2^nd Edition).

How to get the most out of the Reading Assignments.

While the Lectures comprise the primary source for this course and will be the final arbiter for questions about Exam and Homework answers, we also expect you to do the readings assigned from the required books for the course.

To get the most out of the readings, you should do them before the lectures for the week during which they are assigned. In other words, to get the most out of the first week's readings, you should read them before you attend the first lecture on Monday, January 9 (although I realize few if any of you will find this page until after the first day of class).

I realize you will come across terms or concepts that are unfamiliar and you may also read about items we will not discuss at length in class. However, doing the readings before class will at least introduce you to these terms and concepts so they are not completely foreign to you when we discuss them in class.

Week of January 7:

• LAN:
  • Chapters 1 and 2
• LAN-CD:
  • Chapters 1 and 2 (Files named "01_1-51.pdf" and "02_52-96.pdf")
• MSNET:
  • Local Area Network (LAN), pp. 719-720
  • Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), pp. 758-759
  • Wide Area Network (WAN), pp. 1203-1204
  • peer-to-peer network, pg. 918
  • client/server, pg. 255
  • OSI Model, pp. 887-889
  • Physical Layer, pg. 924
  • Cabling, pp. 204-206
  • Coaxial Cabling, pp. 260-261
  • Twisted-Pair Cabling, pp. 1134-1135
  • Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP) Cabling: pp. 1153-1154
  
  
• Special Reading: PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCESSING THIS FILE.

  Below is a link to a file on another website. There is also a link that will allow you to download a PDF version of the file from the CS web site. You will need Adobe Acrobat to read the file, but you will be able to save a copy for yourself if you wish.

  First, please note that this article does contain some vulgar language. I apologize for that, but it's out of my control. Part of the article is a transcript of several on-line "chat" sessions and one of the participants is not very restrained in some of his responses. I thought I should warn you in advance.

  Second, you may be wondering why I want you to read this now. I am sure that there are many things in here you will not understand. I hope we will be able to return to this later in the term when you will understand all or most of what is being discussed. However, I think there is great value in reading this article now because it gives such a clear example of the challenges in IT and what sorts of things (and people!) you are forced to protect yourself against, often for the strangest of reasons. I may make a few comments about this in class on Wednesday.

  • Link to the Web version of the story.
  • Open the PDF version with Acrobat and save your own copy if you wish.

Weeks of January 14, January 21, and January 28:

• LAN:
  • Part One: Chapters 3 and 4 (only to middle of Page 158.)
• MSNET:
  • "Network": pp. 835-836
  • "Network Design": pp. 844-846
  • "Network Architecture": pp. 870-874
  • "Topology": pp. 1124-1125
  • "Bus Topology": pp. 195-196
  • "Ring Topology": pp. 991-992
  • "NIC (Network Interface Card)": pp. 849-850
  • "Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model": pp. 887-889
  • "Physical Layer": pg. 924
  • "Data link Layer": pp. 317-318
  • "Signal"" pp. 1042-1043
  • "Network Layer": pp. 850-851
  • "Network Protocol": pg. 856
  • "Transport Layer": pg. 1130
  • "Ethernet": pp. 441-444
  • "Fast Ethernet": pp. 461-463
  • "Gigabit Ethernet": pp. 516-521
  • "Baseband Network": pg. 151
  • "Token Ring": pp. 1121-1124
  • "Packet": pg. 903
  • "Packet-Switching" and "Packet-Switching Services": pp. 906-909
  • "Bandwidth": pp. 147-148
  • "Bridge": pp. 180-181
  • "Router": pp. 997-999
  • "Routing": pp. 1000-1001
  • "Session Layer": pg. 1036
  • "Presentation Layer": pg. 938
  • "Application Layer": pp. 95-96
  • "Protocol": pg. 948

Weeks of February 4 and February 11:

• LAN:
  • Chapter Four: Review thru pg. 158
  • Chapter Twelve: Focus on pp. 541 - 555, but read it all
  • Chapter Thirteen: Focus on pp. 577 - 598
• MSNET:
  • "Internet Protocol (IP)": pp. 628-629
  • "Internet Protocols": pp. 629-630
  • "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)": pp. 1128-1130
  • "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)": pp. 1127-1128
  • "Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)": pp. 69-70
  • "Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)": pp. 620-621
  • "DNS (Domain Name Service) and Internet Domains": pp. 397-400
  • "User Datagram Protocol (UDP)": pp. 1157-1158
  • "CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)": pp. 250-251 (skim)

Week of Febraury 18 and February 25:

• LAN:
  • Chapter Fourteen (focus on WLAN-related (802.11) topics).
  • Chapter Two: pp. 76 - 81 (Gigabit Ethernet and ATM)
  • Chapter Thirteen.
• MSNET:
  • "CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)": pp. 250-251 (read carefully this time)
  • "Network Address Translation (NAT)": pp. 838-841
  • "Wireless Networking": pp. 1230-1233
  • "Wireless LANs": pg. 1229
  • "802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b": pp. 26-31
  • "Infrared Transmission": pp. 594-595
  • "Spread Spectrum": pp. 1060-1061
  • "Gigabit Ethernet": pp. 516-521
  • "802.16": pp. 32
  • "Wireless Broadband Communications": pg. 184-185

Weeks of March 3, March 17, and March 24:

• LAN:
  • Chapter 5
  • Chapter 12 (review pp. 541-554)
  • Chapter 13 (review pp. 576-614)
  • Chapter 16
  • Chapter 15 (skim only)
• MSNET:
  • "VPN": pp. 1174-1176
  • "IPSec": pp. 630-631
  • "VLAN": pp. 1170-1174
  • "Tunneling": pp. 1133-1134
  • "Network Design": pp. 844-846
  • "Network Architecture": pp. 841-842
  • "Backup": pp. 138-141
  • "Directory (Services)": pp. 360-362
  • "X.500": pp. 1242-1243

Weeks of March 31, April 7, and April 14:

• LAN:
  • Chapter 7.
• MSNET:
  • "server": pg. 1029.
  • "Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)": pp. 1150-1052.
  • "RAID": pp. 970-972.
  • "Storage Area Network (SAN)": pp. 1070-1072.
  • "Multitasking": pg. 809.
  • "Clustering": pp. 257-259
  • "Windows 3.1": pp. 1205-1207.
  • "Windows 95": pp. 1207-1209.
  • "Windows 98": pg. 1209.
  • "Windows NT": pp. 1219-1222.
  • "Windows 2000": pp. 1209-1211.