CS 6380 - Computer Networks
Winter 1999
Instructor
Ellen W. Zegura
Main Office: GCATT 216, 404-894-1403
Shared CoC Office: CCB 215
Office hours: TuTh 11am-noon in CCB 215 (or by appointment)
ewz@cc.gatech.edu
Teaching Assistant
Lixian Liu
Office: CCB Commons Area
Office hours: MW 3:30-5pm
lixian@cc.gatech.edu
Course Content
CS 6380 (Computer Networks) is the introductory graduate course
in telecommunications/networking, laying the foundation for
all other graduate networking courses.
CS 6380 assumes no prior experience in networking; students
who have previously taken a networking course may be able
to skip 6380; this should be discussed with the professor.
This quarter, the course will be taught in "top-down" fashion,
beginning with applications and application protocols, then
proceeding down the protocol stack to the transport, network and
finally data link layers. Further, the course will present
fundamental problems with emphasis on
the solutions (protocols and underlying algorithms) used in the current
Internet. The intent of the top-down approach is to begin
with the familiar and motivate the services required by the lower
layers. The focus on the Internet allows a concrete example of
the fundamental concepts. The reasons for selecting the Internet
as the example should be obvious!
Textbooks
The bookstore should have copies of "Computer Networks:
A Systems Approach", by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie.
Some homework problems will be taken from this text,
and it is a good source of information on much of the
class material.
We will also make use of a new on-line textbook entitled
Computer Networking and Internet Protocols by Keith Ross
and Jim Kurose. This text is still under development.
For an excellent book on the history of the Internet,
see "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet,"
by Kate Hafner and Matthew Lyons (contributor). This
book is available at the on-line bookstore
amazon.com, and should also be at many local bookstores.
Grading
The grading allocation is given below. The homework
assignments will consist of a combination of written
problems and programming problems. Knowledge of C and
Unix is assumed for the programming problems.
Homework 30%
Midterm 30%
Final 35%
Class participation 5%
Syllabus
Week 1 Overview, Application concepts
Week 2 Application protocols (http,ftp,dns)
Week 3 Application programming (sockets)
Week 4 Transport protocols (tcp,udp)
Week 5 Principles of reliable transport
MIDTERM
Week 6 Internet protocol (IP)
Week 7 Principles of routing
Week 8 Ethernet
Week 9 Principles of medium access
Week 10 Catch-up
FINAL
Ellen Zegura
Last modified: Mon Jan 4 21:38:15 IST 1999