INFS 612: Data Communication and Distributed Processing

(downloadable word document)

Objective (as stated in the course catalog)

Concepts and applications of telecommunication technologies, networks and distributed information systems. Topics include regulatory issues, network pricing and management.

Prerequisites

INFS 501, 515 and 590 or equivalent and some programming experience.
The course has an individual project (not a group project) using socket libraries, and students are expected to be able to program on thier own.
The objective of the project is for students to be introduced to network programming.

Course Material

  1. Course Text (required): Computer Networking by Jim F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross (ISBN 0-201-47711-4) published by Addision-Wesley, and
    Effective TCP/IP Programming: 44 Tips to improve your network programming by Jon C. Snader
  2. Alternative Reference 1:Computer Networks and Internets by Douglas Comer (3rd edition)
  3. Alternative Reference 2:Data and Computer Communication, by William Stallings. (6th edition, ISBN=0-13-084370-9)
  4. Some helpful Links:Material avilable at the Companion site by Stallings.
  5. Project Material; to be described later

Grading policy

  1. Weights: Five assignments (5% each) 25%, Midterm Exam 25%, Final exam 25%, Project 25%.
  2. Late Submissions: Discouraged, but allowed under exceptional circumstances with prior approval of the instructor.
  3. Incompletes:No incompletes will be given.
  4. Honor Code Violations:All violators will be reported under all circumstances, and may get an automatic course grade of F at least.

Course Administration

  1. Class Meetings: Monday 7:20pm-10pm in ST II Room 15
  2. Instructor: Duminda Wijesekera, email: dwijesek@gmu.edu, duminda@ise.gmu.edu
  3. Instructor Office Hours: Monday from 6.00 to 7.00 pm, in ST II Rm 351
  4. Teaching Assistant:Yang Luo, email: yluo@gmu.edu
  5. TA Office Hours: Wednesday 4.30 to 6.30, in ST II Rm 268.

Announcements

  1. Extra Office Hour: Thursday 09/13/01 at 8.00 pm in ST II Rom 351
  2. New Requirement on Homework Submission (9/26/01): All homework submissions must be typed.
  3. 10/01/01:Homework 3 out
  4. TA Office hrs changed:from Wednesday 4.30 - 6.30 to Thursday 5.00-7.00 starting the week of October 15th.
  5. Solutions for HW 1 Selected from Student Submissions: by Jia?, by Ryan McDowell
  6. Solutions for HW 2 Selected from Student Submissions: by Kavitha Pdmanabhan, by Kashif Jamil
  7. Class on November 05th will be taught by Naren Kodali. He will be (1) Explaining Part II of the project, (2) Discussing mid-term exams (3) Covering an intial segment of chapter 5.
  8. Revised syllabus: Nov 05 and Nov 12 - Chapter 05 (Datalink Layer) Nov 19: Chapter 08. (Network Management)
    Time permitting Chapter 06 (Multimedia Networks)
  9. Solutions for HW 3 Selected from Student Submissions: Solution 1, Solution 2
  10. Hand-in date for Homework 4 has been extended to 11/19/01 in response to student requests.
  11. Nov 19th class will cover last two sections of chapter 5 and chapter 8.
  12. Help on Project Part II
  13. Solutions for HW 4 selected from student submissions.

Approximate Course Schedule

The following schedule has been changed to reflect new textbooks!
Date
Topic
Readings from
Kurose and Ross
 Giving Out Due in Class
Week 1
Aug 27 		Introduction and Terminology
Terminology
Layering
OSI and TCP/IP Protocol Suite 		Ch 1,
Start reading TCP/IP Book		 Homework 1
Sept 03
No Class 		Labor Day Break
Week 2
Sept 10 		Application Layer protocols
Application Layer protocols
HTTP, FTP, SMTP
DNS
Socket Programming		 Finish Ch 1
Begin Ch2
Socket Programming
Week 3
Sept 17 		Transport Layer and Socket Programming:
Socket Programming Continued
Details of TCP and UDP
Congestion Control		 Ch2, Ch 3 Homework 2
Project Part I		 Homework 1
Week 4
Sept 24 		Transport Layer+ Network Layer
Internet Protocol, and IP Adderesses
Routing, Multicast		 Ch3, Ch 4
Week 5
Oct 01 		Finish Ch4, Review First 4 chapters Homework 3 Homework 2

Oct 08
No Class 		Columbus Day Break
(Class Meets Oct 10)
Week 6
Oct 10 		Mid-Term Examination Covers Ch 1 to 4
Week 7
Oct 15 		Security In Networks Ch 7 Homework 3
Week 8
Oct 22 		Security in Networks
Key Management, Encryption,
SSL, TLS. IPSec		 Ch 7 Project Part II Project Part I
Week 9
Oct 29 		Data Link Layer
LAN's ATM		 Ch 5 Homework 4 Homework 3
Week 10
Nov 05 		Data Link Layer
ATM and related topics		 Ch 5
Week 11
Nov 12 		Multimedia Networking
RTP, Best Efforts,
Integrated Services, QoS, RSVP		 Ch 6 Homework 5 Homework 4
Week 12
Nov 19 		Multimedia Networking
Continued		 Ch 6
Week 13
Nov 26 		Network Management
SNMP, Adminstration, and configurations
Security Management and Firewalls		 Ch 8 Homework 5
Week 14
Dec 03 		Review All chapters
Project Part II
December 17 Final Examination All chapters