Computer Networks

CS 6250 Section Fall 2000

TTH 935a-1055a
101 College of Computing Building
Note: No class on 8/31 and 11/23 (thanksgiving)

General Information

>From the Georgia Tech Course Catalog:

CS6250: Computer Networks

3-0-3. Prerequisites: Graduate Standing or Consent of the Instructor

Course Objective:
Principles and practice of computer networks, including signaling and framing, error control, medium access, routing, congestion control, end-to-end transport, and network APIs.
 

Instructor: Prof. Jun (Jim) Xu

• Office: CCB 132 (shared office)
• Phone: (404)3852168
• Email: jx@cc.gatech.edu
• Office Hours: after class or by appointment

·  Teaching Assistants: Hao Wang (wanghao@cc.gatech.edu) and Min-Ho Sung (mhsung@cc.gatech.edu)

• Office Hours: Wang (TTH 1:30 to 2:30 at Student Commons Area in CoC) and Sung (MW 4:00 to 5:00)

Textbooks

Required: [Garcia] Communication Networks. by Leon-Garcia and Widjaja, McGraw Hill, 2000
Required: [Donahoo] The Pocket Guide to TCP/IP Sockets. by Donahoo and Calvert, Morgan Kaufmann, 2001

Other References (many of which are on reserve in the Georgia Tech Library)

[Comer2] Computer Networks and Internets, 2nd ed. by Comer, Prentice-Hall 1999
[Stallings2] Data and Computer Communications, 5th ed., by Stallings, Prentice Hall, 1997
[Ammar] Fundamentals of Telecommunication Networks, by Saadavi and Ammar with El Hakeem, John Wiley, 1994
[Bertsekas] Data Networks, 2nd ed. by Bertsekas & Gallager, Prentice Hall, 1992
[Spragins] Telecommunications: Protocols and Design by Spragins, Hammond, and Pawlikowski, Addison-Wesley, 1991
[Tanenbaum] Computer Networks, 2nd ed. by Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 1989
[Schwartz] Telecommunication Netwokrs: Protocols, Modeling, and Analysis by Schwartz, Addison-Wesley, 1987
[Hammond] Performance Analysis of Local Computer Networks by Hammond and O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, 1986
 

More information may be added as the course progresses.

Grade Division

	Percentage of Grade	Distribution Date
Homework	40%	Varies
Midterm	25%	TH, 19 Oct 2000 during class
Final	35%	TH, 14 Dec 2000 @ 11:30a

Class attendance is encouraged but not mandatory.  Should you miss a miss, you are responsible for the material covered in the class and homework assigned.

I am strict on homework and lab deadlines.  The exam dates are firm.  Only emergency situations may be excused.  Formal proof of the situation in the paper may be required.

Assignments will be announced in the class and/or posted on the class homepage.  The assignments are open book, but are to be solved without any personal assistance from other individuals.  An honor code is implicit with each assignment.  Academic dishonesty will be dealt with harshly by the instructor and escalated to the department, college, and/or university, if necessary.

Finally, grades are non-negotiable (i.e., "binding") at 5pm one week after they are returned.

 

Outline of the class

1. Motivation: What is a communication network? Why do we need it? What do we need it for?
Chapter 1

2. Network architecture: A abstract model of a very complex communication network system.
Chapter 2

3. Physical layer and data link layer
Chapter 3 and Chapter 5

4. Circuit switching in the context of telephony as a case study of network architecture
Chapter 4

5. Local area networks and media access control
Chapter 6

6. Packet switching networks in the context of TCP/IP
Chapter 7 and Chapter 8

7. Circuit switching revisited in the context of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Chapter 9 and Chapter 10

8. Selected topics such as security and multimedia
Chapter 11 and Chapter 12
 

Homework #1

Due: 9/7

Reading: 1.1-1.2,  2.1-2.3,  3.1-3.7

Problems:

pp41,     16

pp90,     6, 19, 21

pp180,   10, 11, 19, 20, 21, 25