P438-Fall'07

CSCI P438: Computer Networks

General Course Information (Fall 2007)

Time: Tue & Thur, 9:30am - 10.45am

Location: GL 101

Web board

Instructor: Minaxi Gupta

Email:

Office: Lindley Hall (LH) 230B

Office Hours: Tue and Thur immediately after class (or by appt)

AIs: Craig Shue, Andrew Kalafut

Emails:

Office: Lindley Hall (LH) 415

Office Hours: Andrew: Monday 11am to 12pm, Craig: Tuesday 1pm to 2pm

Course Summary/Pre-requisites

Our goal in this class is to learn about computer networks. We will do this by understanding how the networks work today and why they are designed the way they are. The course will primarily focus on the Internet but will also cover other past and present network technologies to put things in perspective. Since applications play an important role in the evolution of the Internet we will also study DNS, peer-to-peer networks, multicast, and security.

Topics to be covered include: Error control, medium access, routing, congestion control, end-to-end transport, TCP/IP, IEEE 802.11 networks, security, and applications.

Pre-requisites: This is the first graduate level networking course. An undergraduate course in Operating Systems or Networking along with programming experience in C/C++ is required.

Textbook and Additional References

Required textbook:
Computer Networks: A Systems Approach (4th edition) by Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie. Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.

I will derive material from the following reference books, RFCs, and research papers for certain classes (however, you are not required to buy any additional materials for this class):

Computer Networking: A top down approach featuring the Internet (3rd edition) by J. Kurose and K. Ross. Pearson Education, 2004.
Communication Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures (2nd edition) by A. Leon-Garcia and I. Widjaja. McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Computer Networks (4th edition) by A. Tanenbaum. Pearson Education, 2002.
Data Networks (2nd edition) by D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager. Prentice Hall, 1992.
Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols (2nd edition) by R. Perlman. Pearson Education, 1999.
An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking: ATM Networks, the Internet, and the Telephone Network (1st edition) by S. Keshav. Addison-Wesley Professional, 1997.
Web Protocols and Practice: HTTP/1.1 (1st edition) by B. Krishnamurthy and J. Rexford. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001.
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (1st edition) by W. R. Stevens. Addison-Wesley Professional, 1994.
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2: The Implementation (1st edition) by G. R. Wright and W. R. Stevens. Addison-Wesley Professional, 1995.

The following books are excellent references for UNIX network programming (sockets etc.) and will be very useful for the programming assignments:

TCP/IP Sockets in C: Practical Guide for Programmers by M. Donahoo, K. Calvert. Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.
UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API (3rd edition) by W. R. Stevens, B. Fenner and A. Rudoff. Addison-Wesley Pub Co, 2003.

Grading and Exams

The approximate grade break-up for the class is as follows:

Midterm: 15%
Final: 15%
Written Assignments (6-8): 15% (all assignments have equal weight)
Projects (3-5): 50% (all projects have equal weight)
Class Participation: 5%