George Mason University
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

CS455 Computer Networking Systems

Section 003 Spring 2002

Wednesday 7:20pm - 10:00pm, ENT room 275

This page last updated on December 20, 2001


Dr. Holly Xiao

703-883-6722
hxiao@cs.gmu.edu, hxiao@mitre.org
(Please prefix the subject of your email with CS455.)

 

Homework TA: Sundhar Lakshminarasimhan
Email: slakshmi@gmu.edu

Office hours: Monday 2 to 4 pm;  Wednesday 5 to 7 pm  

Location: room 365 ST2.

 

Project  TA: Rong Wong
Email: rwang@cs.gmu.edu

Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 4 to 6 pm 

Location: room 365 ST2.

 


DESCRIPTION

The course will present data communications fundamentals and computer networking methods, using the ISO 7-layer reference model to organize the study. Attention will be focused on the protocols of the physical, data link control, network, and transport layers, for local and wide area networks. Emphasis will be given to the Internet Protocol Suite. Students will program simplified versions of the protocols as part of the course project.

Prerequisites: CS365 and STAT344 or equivalent; ability to program in C/C++.


COURSE PROJECT

We will use the Network Workbench (NW), software developed at GMU that simulates a protocol stack and displays the results, using a text interface. Students will create modules for Internet stack layers and run them in the NW environment. NW will be available via IT&E computing labs in ST2-18, 133, and 137 and by dial-in. For information on the IT&E computing labs, including how to get an account, please see the IT&E lab web site at http://ite.gmu.edu/labs. Versions of NW are also available for download and installation on Linux and Sun systems, and also for Windows sytems that have Borland or Visual C++ compilers installed. Additional information on NW can be found at http://netlab.gmu.edu/NW.

Well documented code must be submitted by email to the TA for grading (submit the module you programmed, plus diskout.txt, as ATTACHMENTS CLEARLY LABELED WITH FILE NAMES). Additional projects are available for extra credit. The CS455 Project TA is Rong Wong, email: rwang@cs.gmu.edu Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 4 to 6 pm room 365 ST2.

The project is documented in one of the required texts. Copies of class slides, software and documentation for the project are included with this text on CDROM.


LECTURE SLIDES

Slides used for lectures will be available for download 24 hours before the lecture. Slides may be downloaded from http://cs.gmu.edu/~hxiao/. Note that these may be slightly different than the slides used by the other sections. Please use these slides not the slides for the other sections. Also, please see the copyright notice on the first page and avoid using GMU printers to make paper copies.


HOMEWORK

The CS455 Homework TA is Sundhar Lakshminarasimhan, email: slakshmi@gmu.edu. Office hours: Monday 2 to 4 pm;  Wednesday 5 to 7 pm  room 365 ST2.

Students taking the course in the classroom section should turn in their homework as hardcopy in class on the due date, but if a student is for some reason unable to turn in hardcopy, the TA will accept homework submitted by e-mail.

Assignments are due by 7:30PM on assigned date. Late assignments lose 10% per class credit.


GRADING POLICY

Homework 10%, 

Midterm exam 25% (CLOSED BOOK), 

Project 30%, 

Final exam 35% (CLOSED BOOK).

Project credit breakout: DLC1, DLC2, LAN1, WAN2, and INT3 four points each; DLC3 and TRN1 five points each; extra credit LAN2, WAN3, WAN4, INT1, and INT2 two points each.

Missed exams must be arranged with the instructor BEFORE the exam date.

All students are expected to abide by the Honor Code as stated in the GMU catalog and elaborated for Computer Science.

Grading is proficiency-based (no curve), cutoffs will be in the vicinity of (but not higher than) A - 90; B - 80; C - 70.


SYLLABUS (tentative, subject to revision)


Date and topic/Readings in Peterson & Davie text/Project assignment

1-23 Course introduction; network concepts; 7-layer and 5-layer models / Chapter 1 / NW Setup

1-30 Physical layer: transmission media, coding / Sections 2.1 to 2.3 / Project DLC1: Framing

2-6 Analog/digital transmission, serial/parallel interfaces, multiplexing, CRC / Sections 2.4 / Project DLC2: CRC

2-13 Data compression, security principles, integrity, appropriate use / Chapter 7 / Project DLC1 due

2-20 Data link control; discrete event simulation / Section 2.5 / Project DLC 3: ARQ ; Project DLC2 due

2-27 Local area networks / Section 2.6 to 2.10 / Project LAN1: CSMA/CD LAN

3-6 Mid-Term Exam / Chapters 1, 2 and 7

3-13 No class; Spring break

3-20 Network Layer: WANs, X.25, routing / Chapter 3 / Project DLC3 due

3-27 No class

4-3 Internet Architecture (IPv4) / Chapter 4 / Project WAN 2: Forwarding and Optimization ; Project LAN1 due

4-10 Queueing basics; transport layer: TCP and UDP / Chapter 5; Sections 6.1 to 6.3 / Project TRN1: Reliable Transport

4-17 Multicast and multimedia networking / Sections 6.4 to 6.5 / Project INT3: Integrated Stack; Project WAN2 due

4-24 Network Security and Network Management / Chapter 8 / Project TRN1 due

5-1 Higher layer protocols / Chapter 9/ Project INT3 plus any extra-credit projects due -- Course review

5-8 Final exam (comprehensive) / Chapters 1 to 9


READINGS

Required textbook: Larry L. Peterson, Computer Networks, 2nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000

Required project book: Pullen, Understanding Internet Protocols, Wiley, 2000

References (available in library):

1. Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol. I, 3rd Ed., Prentice-Hall, 1996

2. Stallings, Data and Computer Communications, 6th Ed., Prentice-Hall, 2000

3. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 3rd Ed., Prentice-Hall, 1996

4. Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1, The Protocols, Addison-Wesley, 1994  

5. William Shay,   Understanding Data Communications and Networks, 2nd Edition, PWS Publishing Company, 1999.

6. William Stallings, Data and Computer Communications, 6h Ed., Prentice Hall, 2000.

Course notices and assignments will be provided via email. Students are responsible to have an email account and provide an address to the instructor. osf1.gmu.edu or other email addresses may also be used.


EXAMINATION RULES

The GMU honor code and the CS honor code apply and will be vigorously enforced.  Further, no early exams will be offered.   If you must miss an exam then you must provide a written, verifiable excuse. No makeup exams will be offered until your excuse is verified.

CLASS HOME PAGE

Class notes, slides, handouts homework solutions, etc. will be available at the class home page. Students are responsible for assigned readings and all material outlined in lecture slides.