Syllabus CS 536 Data Communication and Computer Networks Fall 2004Instructor : Kihong ParkClass : MWF 1:30–2:20pm (CS G66)Office Hours : MW 2:30–3:30pm or by appointment (CS 220)E-mail : [email protected] (Tel. : 4–7821)Course Homepage : http://www.cs.purdue.edu/∼park/cs536.htmlTeaching Assistant : Tiberiu StefOffice Hours : R 2:30–3:30pm, F 3–5pm (CS 266)E-mail : [email protected] (Tel. : 4–7840)Course Content : Graduate-level introductory course to computer networks and data communication;covers principles (∼60%) and implementation (∼40%).Prerequisites : Operating systems (CS 413); solid background in C and UNIX (experience with medium-to-large projects); sound undergraduate-level mathematical preparation (calculus, probability and statis-tics, linear algebra, etc.).Text Books : Required: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach. Peterson & Davie. Morgan Kauf-mann Publ., latest edition (3rd). The textbook should be viewed as reference material; the lectures are themain source of information. Although the overall flow will be the same, the material covered in the lectureswill deviate from the textbook in sequence, presentation, and treatment at various places. Attendance iscrucial for the successful completion of the course.Work Load and Grading Policy : Homework assignments (35%), midterm (25%), final (25%), project(15%). Homework assignments, on average, are bi-weekly. They will be posted on the course homepage.Discussion of initial ideas and approaches regarding homework assignments is fine. Collaboration on home-works (i.e., jointly exploring the specifics of a solution), however, is not allowed. Academic dishonesty isa serious matter and is dealt with in accordance with University policy. Project: list of topics distributedafter midterm; submit project plan; feedback provided; execution and submit report. Current events:round-robin presentation & discussion of networking trends; each Friday 10–15 minutes.Lab Space : Our main programming and implementation platform will be the cluster of PCs in theXinu Lab (CS 257) of the Computer Science Building running UNIX (Solaris). Lab times have been setaside for CS 536 (consult your schedules). There are also open times (posted in the Lab) during which themachines can be shared with other users. The lab machines can be accessed remotely using ssh; telnet isdisabled for security reasons. The relevant hostnames are: xinu1.cs.purdue.edu, ... which are Intel x86machines, and xinuserver.cs.purdue.edu which is the fileserver for the cluster. A typical homework willinvolve writing network programs running on a number of xinu*.cs.purdue.edu machines communicatingwith each other. Accounts are automatically created for you based on registration. For account-relatedquestions, please consult Candace Walters ([email protected], 4–9206, CS 210).Goal of the Course :The primary goal of the course lies in the mastery of fundamental networking concepts—architecture,algorithms, and implementations. Computer networks is a rapidly evolving field, with new standards andimprovements in data communication technology occurring, literally, as we speak. This makes the fieldboth exciting and rewarding; however, for those not firmly grounded in its fundamentals, it can also bea confusing and overwhelming subject matter. Fortunately, the fundamentals required in understandingand keeping on top of ongoing developments vary at a much slower pace, and it is these fundamentalsthat will form the skeleton of the course, with technological advances providing further grounding andcontext. This course is a modern introduction to computer networks, stressing the logical organization ofthe three networking features: architecture, algorithms, and implementations. Special emphasis will begiven to performance issues which will be a recurring and, to some extent, unifying theme of the course.Ultimately, architecture, algorithm, and implemention are geared toward facilitating performance. We willlearn about the technology and control mechanisms underlying local area and wide area networks includingwireless networks, the fundamentals of information transmission and coding which underlies all intelligiblecommunication, the protocols that allow diverse networks to interoperate so that messages are seemlesslyforwarded (internetworking), the role of data buffering and why, in spite of that, data is sometimes loston its route from source to destination (aka queueing). We will learn how to control the path and flow ofdata such that network performance is enhanced (routing and congestion control), special problems arisingin high bandwidth networks, what Internet traffic actually looks like, key issues surrounding multimediacommunication (voice/audio/video), and their support (quality of service), high-level transparent networkservices including domain name system (DNS), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), caching and contentdistribution networks (CDNs). We will conclude with a discussion of network security issues.Course Outline :• Introduction• Fundamentals of information transmission and coding• Direct link communication I: wired media• Direct link communication II: wireless media• End-to-end communication: packet switching and circuit switching• Socket programming and network communication• Internetworking with TCP/IP: structure• —–Midterm—–• Internetworking with TCP/IP: functionality• Congestion control• Routing• Internet traffic: data and multimedia payloads• Multimedia communication and QoS• Transparent network services: DNS, HTTP, web server design, caching and CDNs• Network security: “CIA,” denial-of-service attack, worm attack• —–Final—–§ The lecture notes will be made available on-line on the course