CS/ECE  757 – Computer Networks

Fall 2004

 

 

Instructor:                  Prof. Jorg Liebeherr, 209 Olsson, 982-2228 (office),

                                    jorg@cs.virginia.edu (email).

Course hours:             Tuesday and Thursday, 1100-1215, MEC 216

Office hours:              Monday 11am-12noon or by appointment via email.

Prerequisites:             Undergraduate Calculus, Elementary Probability, Good Programming Skills

 

Course Website:        http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~cs757

 

Reading:               There is no required textbook.

     
 Required Reading:        

There is no required textbook. Required readings will be posted on the website and consist of book chapters (on reserve in the Science and Engineering Library) and research papers (available on the website).

                             

                              Optional  Textbook:                    

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet  by J. Kurose, K. W. Ross, 3rd edition, Addison-Wesley 2004.

 

Description:    A graduate course on computer networking. The topics include basics of switched communication networks, TCP/IP networking, network programming, packet switch architecture, rate and congestion control, Quality-of-Service networks, wireless communications.

 

Expected Skills:  

                        The course does not assume prior knowledge of networking. However, the course will move relatively fast. The course is not suited for students without programming skills (C, C++,  Java) and without basic skills in calculus and probability.

                       

Content:

Review of Important Networking Concepts (1 week)

Examples of Networks (2 weeks)

  - Telephone network, IP network, ATM network, switched Ethernet networks

Overlay Networks (2 weeks)

Architecture of Packet Switches (1 week)

Flow and Congestion Control Algorithms (2 weeks)

Quality-of-Service (2 weeks)

Multiaccess and wireless networks (2 weeks)

 

Evaluation:

2 Exams (Oct. 5, Dec. 2) (each 25 %)

Assignments (10 %)

Class Participation (10%)

Project (30 %)

Exams:            In class, closed book, closed notes.

Assignments: Programming, simulations, paper reviews, etc.
                        All  assignments are done individually.

Project:           The project is on overlay networking with the HyperCast software
(see http://www.cs.virginia.edu/hypercast). The project is done in groups of two.

Pledge Policy:

  • You may DISCUSS a homework assignment with anyone in the class. You can discuss what a question means, how you might go about solving it, or even how you did solve it. You can discuss any material from the book or lecture that you consider relevant to the homework with anyone.
  • You MAY NOT do any of the following: - LOOK at homework solutions written by anyone in the class. - COPY someone else's code or lab report or lab data, other than your partner's.
  • There are no restrictions on what you can discuss with the instructor.
  • You do not have to write the pledge on your homeworks, although we will not mind if you do. Whether or not you do write it, we consider the pledge to be implicit when you hand in your homework.

Honor Policy:

  •  I trust every student in this course to fully comply with all of the provisions of the UVA honor system.
  • All alleged honor violations brought to my attention will be forwarded to the Honor Committee. If, in my judgment, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that a student has committed an honor violation with regard to a given exam, that student will receive an immediate grade of 'F' for that exam, irrespective of any subsequent action taken by the Honor Committee.

Books (on reserve):  

  • [Kurose/Ross] Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet  by J. Kurose, K. W. Ross, Addison-Wesley 2000. 
  • [Keshav] An engineering approach to computer networking : ATM networks, the internet, and the telephone network, S. Keshav, Addison-Wesley, 1997. 
  • [Peterson/Davie] Computer networks: a systems approach, L. L. Peterson and B. S. Davie, 3nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2001. 
  • [Stallings] Data and computer communications, W. Stallings, 7th edition, Prentice Hall, 2004. 
  • [Tanenbaum] Computer networks, A. S. Tanenbaum. 3rd edition, Prentice Hall PTR, 1996.