CS4251: Computer Networks II

Instructor: Prof. Constantine Dovrolis

Office: 218 GCATT
Office phone: 5-4205
Office hours: Tue and Thu 4:30-5:30 (after class) at CCB lounge area
Email: dovrolis@cc.gatech.edu

Teaching Assistant: Guru Prasadh Villupuram Venkataramani

Office hours: Wednesday 1:00-2:00 and Friday 2:00-3:00 at CCB lounge area
Email: guru@cc.gatech.edu

Table of Contents

• Course Information
• What's New - Important Dates
• Textbook
• Syllabus - Schedule
• Term project
• Homeworks
• Grading
• Course Policies
• Miscellanea

Course Information

• Class meeting times: TR 3:05 - 4:25
• Classroom: Physics S106
• Midterm: Oct 28 (in class)
• Final: Dec 6 (11:30-2:20, in class)

``What's New'' and Important Reminders

• The final exam is on Dec 6, 11:30-2:20, in Physics S106
• The project is due on Fri, Dec 3, 11:59pm (Guru will send out submission instructions)

Textbook and additional references

Other good references:

• L.L.Petterson and B.S.Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach (second edition) , 1999
• J.Kurose and K.Ross, Computer Networking, A top down approach featuring the Internet , 2000
• S.Keshav, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking: ATM Networks, the Internet, and the Telephone Network , 1997
• W. R. Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols, 1994.
• G. R. Wright and W. R. Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2: The Implementation, 1995.

The following books are excellent references for UNIX network programming, and you will find them very useful for the programming assignments of this course (the book by Donahoo and Calvert is quite inexpensive and it can be read in a few hours).

• Michael Donahoo, Kenneth Calvert, TCP/IP Sockets in C Practical Guide for Programmers,2001.
• W. R. Stevens, UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1 (2nd edition): Networking APIs - Sockets and XTI, 2/e , 1998
• W. R. Stevens, UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2 (2nd edition): Interprocess Communications, 1999

Syllabus - Schedule

• Aug 17: Course overview, history of network architectures
  Reading: Chapter 1

• Aug 19: Layered network architectures
  Reading: Sections 2.1, 2.2., 2.3 - Textbook slides

  PART I: Physical layer and digital transmission fundamentals
  

• Aug 24: Data communications and digital representation of analog signals
  Reading: Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 - Textbook slides

• Aug 26: Nyquist signaling rate and Shannon channel capacity
  Reading: Sections 3.4, 3.5 - Textbook slides

• Aug 31: Help session with the TA
  Description of term-project
  

• Sep 2: Communication media and systems
  Reading: Section 3.8 - Textbook slides

• Sep 7: Line coding
  Reading: Sections 3.6 - Textbook slides

• Sep 9: Error detection and correction
  Reading: Section 3.9 - Textbook slides

  PART II: Circuit switching networks
  

• Sep 14: Multiplexing and framing
  Reading: Sections 4.1, 4.2 - Textbook slides

• Sep 16: Transport networks and SONET rings
  Reading: Sections 4.3 - Textbook slides

• Sep 21: Circuit switches
  Reading: Sections 4.4 - Textbook slides

• Sep 23: Overview of the telephone network
  Reading: Sections 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8 (focus on 4.7) - Textbook slides

  PART III: Data-link layer: ARQ and framing protocols
  

• Sep 28: Framing protocols (PPP, HDLC)
  Reading: Sections 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 - Textbook slides

• Sep 30: Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) protocols
  Reading: Sections 5.1, 5.2 - Textbook slides

• Oct 5: Mathematical analysis of ARQ protocols
  Reading: Sections 5.1, 5.2 - Textbook slides

  PART IV: MAC protocols and Local Area Networks
  

• Oct 7: Multiple Access Control (MAC) protocols: random access
  Reading: Sections 6.1, 6.2 - Textbook slides

• Oct 12: Ethernet networks
  Reading: Sections 6.6, 6.7 - Textbook slides

• Oct 14: Multiple Access Control (MAC) protocols: scheduled access (token ring, polling)
  Reading: Section 6.3, 6.8 - Textbook slides

• Oct 21: Wireless LANs and IEEE 802.11
  Reading: Section 6.10 - Textbook slides

• Oct 26: LAN bridges and Ethernet switches
  Reading: Section 6.11 - Textbook slides

• Oct 28: Midterm (covering Parts I, II, III)
  

  PART V: Network-layer protocols and routing
  

• Nov 2: Datagrams and Virtual-Circuits
  Reading: Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 - Textbook slides

• Nov 4: IP: an example of a network based on datagrams
  Reading: Sections 8.2, 8.8 - Textbook slides

• Nov 9: Shortest-path routing: Distance Vector and Link State
  Reading: Sections 7.4, 7.5 - Textbook slides

• Nov 16: Internet routing protocols and multicast routing
  Reading: Section 8.6, 8.7 - Textbook slides

• Nov 18: ATM: an example of a network based on virtual-circuits
  Reading: Section 7.6 - Textbook slides

  PART VI: Transport protocols
  

• Nov 23: UDP and TCP
  Reading: Sections 8.4, 8.5 - Textbook slides

• Nov 30: TCP flow control
  Reading: Sections 5.3.3, 8.5 - Textbook slides

• Dec 2: TCP congestion control and TCP extensions
  Reading: Sections 8.5 - Textbook slides

Term project

Design and implementation of a reliable transport protocol
over an unreliable and dynamic datagram network

Homeworks

1. Homework-1: 3.14, 3.18, 3.22, 3.30, 3.32 (solutions)
2. Homework-2: 3.57, 3.63, 4.10, 4.27, 4.36 (solutions)
3. Homework-3: 5.15, 5.22, 5.30, 5.35 (solutions)
4. Homework-4: 6.8, 6.15, 6.16, 6.53 (solutions)
5. Homework-5: 7.20, 7.28, 7.31, 8.14 (ignore the IPv6 part), 8.34, 8.43, 8.61 (solutions)

Grading

• Midterm: 25%
• Final: 25%
• Term project: 35%
• Homeworks: 15%

Course Policies

• All work for this class, except the group project, is to be done individually. You are strongly urged to familiarize yourselves with the GT Student Honor Code rules. Specifically, the following is not allowed:
  1. Copying, with or without modification, someone else's work when this work is not meant to be publicly accessible (e.g., a classmate's program or solution).
  2. Submission of material that is wholly or substantially identical to that created or published by another person or persons, without adequate credit notations indicating authorship (plagiarism).
  You are encouraged to discuss problems and papers with others as long as this does not involve copying of code or solutions. Any public material that you use (open-source software, help from a text, or substantial help from a friend, etc...) should be acknowledged explicitly in anything you submit to us. If you have any doubt about whether something is legal or not please do check with the class Instructor or the TA.
• Absolutely no late homeworks, assignments, or projects will be accepted. The deadline for each homework/assignment/project will be specified at the corresponding handout.

Miscellanea

• Midterm exam from Spring'04
• Final exam from Spring'04
• Garbler code: GarbledDatagramSocket.java, garbler.cc, and garbler.h.
• Pthreads tutorial
• Pthreads tutorial from CS6210 (by Phillip Hutto)