CS555 Computer Communications and Networking

Monday 7:20 - 10:00 PM, ST 1 126

Instructor: Dr. Songqing Chen
Office: 445 S&T II
Phone: 703-993-3176
E-mail: sqchen AT cs dot gmu dot edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m, or by appointment
Course Homepage: http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~sqchen/courses/CS555F08

OVERVIEW

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. Some advanced topics, such as network security, wireless and mobile computing networks, will also be covered. Students will program simplified versions of the protocols as a part of the course project. Students will also program simplified applications using socket programming in the course project.

PREREQUISITES

CS 310, 365, and STAT 344, ability to program in C/C++.

TEXTBOOKS

TENTATIVE TOPICS

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS AND PROJECTS

Homework assignments are on a semi-regular basis. We will have two types of projects. In the first type, we will use a network simulator, Network Workbench (NW). This simulator enables the study and implementation of various networking protocols in a "virtual reality", where network devices (namely, routers and switches) are simulated and your protocol implementations can be tested and debugged. The official platform is site-unix (meaning that the TA will grade your projects on that platform). Currently, it points to zeus.ite.gmu.edu. On site-unix, the current version of NW, nw42, can be found at /usr/local/nw42. (Note that, for security reasons, you can login into site-unix from osf1 if you cannot login directly.) To install nw42 in your home directory, follow the instructions in /usr/local/nw42/Linux-setup.txt.
Alternatively, you can install NW on your PC from netlab.gmu.edu/NW. Note that site-unix is the only official platform. You are responsible for resolving any compatibility issues before submitting (although we expect few such problems).

The second type of project is socket programming based. You must be familiar with socket programming in order to complete the project.

NOTE Assignments and Projects are individual efforts. We reserve the right to use MOSS to detect plagiarism. If your code does not compile, you get no credit.

GRADING POLICY

No credit if your project does not compile.

Your grade will be calcuated as follows:

MISC

GMU Academic Calendar

Honor Code

Disability Resource Center

Dr. Songqing Chen Dept. of Computer Science George Mason University