CNT 4704: Analysis of Computer Communication Networks

Fall 2011

Home                      Lecture notes                        Assignment

 

Instructor:        Dr. Cliff Zou (HEC 243),  407-823-5015,   czou@eecs.ucf.edu

Course Time:   TuTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM,   COMM 0114 (Nicholson School of Communication)

Office Hour:    TuTh  12PM - 1:30PM

Syllabus: (one-page Syllabus)

    This course introduces the fundamental concepts in computer communication networks, their protocols, and applications. Topics to be covered include: overview of  network architectures and applications, network programming interfaces (e.g., sockets), transport, congestion, routing, and data link protocols, addressing, local area networks, wireless networks, and network security. Examples will be drawn from the Internet (e.g., TCP, UDP, and IP) protocol suite, and from many real world cases.

    In current world, almost everything is computerized and everything is connected. Knowledge on networking  becomes as indespenable to Computer Science students as Algorithms or Operating Systems. Network related jobs compose a large portion of the job market in IT industries. Therefore, computer networking knowledge and skill will be critical for Computer Science students in their future career.

    In the Wireshark assignments, students will learn how to monitor the real network traffic in and out of their own computers. They will also learn how to manually send out a fake email (to know that how easy for attackers to send spam email). In the programming assignments, students will program basic client and server code to really communicate to each other on two separated machines. They will also program to learn how TCP works.

 

The tentative grading policy is:

Coursework                        Approx amount                 approx %

written homework                    4                                  32%

programming (C,C++)             2 or 3                           24% or 30%

lab assignments (Wireshark)     2                                  10%

midterm exam                          1                                   14%

final exam                                1                                   20% or 14%

The final grade will use +/- policy, i.e., you may get A, A-, B+, B, B- … grade.

Prerequisites:

·         Algorithms

·         Basic knowledge of Operating Systems

·         C or C++ programming

Online Video Streaming: 

            We will use UCF Tegrity system for online streaming. Each lecture's video will be posted online about two to three hours after the lecture time. We will also use Webcourse for student discussions, questions and answers, homework/project assignment and submission.

Course Materials:

·         Textbook: Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach Featuring the Internet (5th edition), J.F. Kurose and K.W. Ross, Addison-Wesley Longman, 2010. 

        Note that the 4th edition of the textbook is also OK for this course.  I will make homework assignment problems taken from the textbook available on the course webpage, or make hardcopy of them to give to students who use 4th edition textbook. 

               This textbook is simple and fun to read, yet it covers almost all important aspects of current Internet and computer networks. It has rich online resources by just following the above book's URL link.

·         Assigned readings from the textbook and the Web resource.

·         Class Notes: Class notes (in PowerPoint slides) will be posted on this class Web site before each class (extended and modified based on the textbook slides)