CS 4251 - Computer Networking II - Fall 2002

TTh 4:35pm-5:55pm
CCB 101


Announcements

1. No class on 8/22/2002.

2. Permissions have been given to Ms. Cathy Dunnahoo to allow all students on the overload list, who have taken CS3251 or equivalent (e.g., transfer credit from another school), to enroll.  Graduate students on the overload list will not be allowed to enroll in this class, who should enroll in CS 6250 instead.

3. Instructor's grade assignment guideline: Usually, grades A, B, and C each will be given to a third of the class.  I certainly won't hesitate to give out more A's and B's if more students do well in the class.  I won't give out D's and F's unless I am left with no choice.  Grade division will be explained in the following.

4. Newsgroup for the class is available at git.cc.class.cs4251a.

5. Lecture slides are available HERE(Compressed Powerpoint file). The authors of the lecture are Leon-Garcia and Widjaja, the same authors as the textbook.

6. A tutorial on cryptography by professor Jun Xu is available here (Powerpoint file). --- update on 12/03


General Information (from GT catalog)

Credits: 3.00
Principles of computer networks, including medium access, ARQ protocols, routing, congestion avoidance and control.
Emphasis on design options and tradeoffs. Includes significant network application programming.
Lecture: 3.00
Pre-requisites: CS 3251


Instructor: Prof. Jun (Jim) Xu

  • Office: GCATT 217 (permanent office)
  • Phone: (404)385-2168 or simply 52168 from a campus phone
  • Email: jx@cc.gatech.edu
  • Office Hours: TTh 6:00pm to 6:30pm in CoC common area, other time by appointment in GCATT 217

·  Teaching Assistants: Kemin Yang (kemin@cc)

  • Office Hours: WF 1:30-2:30pm in the CoC common area or by appointment.

Textbooks

Required: [Garcia] Communication Networks. by Leon-Garcia and Widjaja, McGraw Hill, 2000

Other References (they will be on reserve soon 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
[Tanenbaum] Computer Networks, 2nd ed. by Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 1989


Grade Division

 

Percentage of Grade 

Distribution Date

Homeworks

50%

 Varies

Midterm

20%

Tuesday, 9/24/2002 @ 4:35pm to 5:55pm

Final

30%

Monday, 12/9/2002 @ 8:00am to 10:50am

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

I am strict on homework deadlines.  The exam dates are firm.  Only emergency situations (illness, death of an immediate family member ...) may be excused.  Formal proof of the situation (e.g., from a medical doctor) in writing is 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.


Tentative 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 network applications
Chapter 11 and some other chapters

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following schedule and topics are very tentative, and is not binding.
The dates in the remarks are, however, not tentative.
 

Week

Topics

Remarks 

Syllabus

No class on 8/22/2002

2

Intro & Review

-

Why Digital? A/D conversion, SNR 

Fundamental Limits (Shannon, Nyquist

-

Error Detection & Correction 

Line coding, Modulation, Transmission Systems 

Media Access - ALOHA, Slotted ALOHA 

Last day to withdraw -- Sep 27th 

8

Media Access - CSMA, CSMA/CD 

9

Media Access - other approaches 

10

LAN Bridges 

Midterm Recess Oct 14-15 

11

Peer-to-Peer (ARQ etc) 

12 

Packet Switching (Virtual Circuit Routing) 

13 

QoS 

14 

Network Applications 

-

15 

Network Security 

Thanksgiving Nov 28-29 

16 

ATM 

Last day of classes Dec 6 

Homework:

HW#1(Due on Thursday, Sept 5)
p41, 16
P89, 6 21
P180, 3 16 18 20 25

HW#2(Due on Thursday, Sept 19)
Turn in:
p183, 32, 34, 38, 41, 43, 44, 50
p453, 9, 10, 14, 27, 28, 46
Think about, but don't turn in
P453, 50, 52

HW#3(Due on Thursday,10/17)
p453,    18, 30, 31, 50, 52
P330,    11, 12, 15, 25, 32

HW#4(Due on Thursday, 11/7)
p540 28, 29
p620 1,8,42,43,44,45,51,53,55

Project (Due: 11/26 in class)
Brief project description:
You need to write an Internet Time and Weather Service (ITWS) software package, which consists of a server program and a client program.  The client program allows a user to make time and weather queries in an interactive way.  The server program, as expected, duly answers such queries.  You don't need to be a meteorologist to carry out this project: the weather provided to the client can be generated at random.  The time the server provides to the client can be the clock reading at the server machine.  The server also needs to keep track of "who has asked for what?", i.e., to have a log recording all client/server interactions.
What to turn in:
1. Hardcopy of the client and server programs with reasonable amount of comment to help understand your code.
2. An example execution output (interacting with the server) at the client side (just cut and paste the execution output from the terminal on which YOUR client program is executed) in HARDCOPY.  You also need to turn in the log at the server side that records the above interaction.
3. NO email submissions.
Weight:
Counted as a regular homework.

HW#5(Due 11/26 Tuesday)
p620 16, 25, 27, 28, 32
p748 1, 27