Computer Networks (527) (09/10)

Lecturer: Dr Peter Pietzuch
Email: prp@doc (you know the rest)
Office: Huxley 442

Format: 9 lectures and 4 tutorials
Date and Location: Spring 2009/10, Mondays 9am-12pm, LT 311

The first half of this course provides an introduction to the wonderful world of computer networks. Its structure loosely follows the OSI Reference Model. Although the lectures include material on a lot of network technology, the aim of the course is to give a general understanding of the underlying design principles and trade-offs that have influenced much of today's networks and the Internet.

The second half of the course focuses on distributed systems that can be built on top of networks. The course web page for this part can be found here.

Syllabus

1. Overview of Networks

• Basic definitions: bandwidth, delay, jitter, ...
  
• Classes of networks: circuit switching vs packet switching, connection-oriented vs connection-less, virtual circuits
• Network scale: local-, metropolitan-, wide-area networks, internets
• Network topologies: mesh, star, bus, ring, ...
• Protocols and standards: OSI Reference Model vs TCP/IP Model, end-to-end principle 

2. The Physical Layer

• Introduction: properties of wired & wireless transmission media, baseband vs. broadband
  
• Modulation: digital vs analogue, TTL signals, differential, Manchester encoding, ...
• Multiplexing: frequency division, time division, code division
• Types of physical connections: telephone line, digital circuits, ADSL, Ethernet, fibre, microwave, wireless, mobile phones, Bluetooth, parallel & serial ports  
  

3. The Data Link Layer

• Network structure: repeaters, bridges, switches, collision domains, routers
• Routing strategies: non-adaptive routing, distance-vector routing, link state routing, internet routing
• The Internet Protocol (IP)
• IP addressing: addresses,  subnets, classless routing, IPv6, network address translation, address resolution techniques
• IP datagrams: fields, fragmentation, control messages

5. The Transport Layer

• Transport addressing: ports, sockets,  ...
• UDP and TCP: format, features, connection establishment, state management, flow and congestion control

6. The Application Layer

• Service architectures: client/server vs. peer-to-peer
• Application layer protocols
• Domain Name System (DNS): names, domains, name resolution, caching
• E-Mail: SMTP, message delivery, attachments, POP and IMAP
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• World Wide Web (WWW): Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), HTTP, web caching

Handouts and Tutorials

Note: I will make solution notes for the tutorials available after each week.

Week 2

Part 1 - Overview and Part 2 - Physical Layer
Tutorial 1 - Questions
Tutorial 1 - Solution notes

Week 3

Part 3 - Data Link Layer
Tutorial 2 - Questions
Tutorial 2 - Solution notes

Week 4

Part 4 - Network Layer
Tutorial 3 - Questions
Tutorial 3 - Solution notes

Week 5

Part 5 - Transport Layer
Tutorial 4 - Questions
Tutorial 4 - Solution notes

Week 6

Part 6 - Application Layer
Tutorial 5 - Questions
Tutorial 5 - Solution notes

Acknowledgements: These notes are based on material prepared by Dan Chalmers and Ian Harries.

Recommended Books

• "Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design", George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Tim Kindberg, Addison-Wesley, 2005 (4th Edition)
  Chapter 3 provides an overview of Networking and Internetworking. This is also the recommended text for the second half of course on distributed systems.
  
• "Computer Networks", Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 2003 (4th Edition)
  This book covers the content of this half of the course and is a useful reference.