Instructor:  Prof. Hung Q. Ngo
		Office: 238 Bell Hall
		Office Hours: M & W 10am-11am
		Phone: 645-4750
		Email: hungngo [at] buffalo

Teaching Assistants:  (in random order)
	Ms. Thanh-Nhan Nguyen
		Office: 329 Bell
		Office Hours: Tue & Thu 1-2pm
		Phone: TBA
		Email: nguyen9 [at] buffalo
	Mr. Achint Thomas
		Office: 329 Bell
		Office Hours: 11am-12pm, Tue
		Phone: TBA
		Email: aothomas [at] buffalo

Course Description:

This course introduces basic elements of modern computer and telecommunication networks. A hybrid five-layer reference model resembling the popular TCP/IP model will be discussed. In each layer, the state-of-the-art hardware and software technologies are introduced. These include, for example, Fiber-optic and Mobile/Cellular communications in the Physical Layer; Wavelength/Time Division Multiple Access Protocols in the Data Link Layer; Unicast and Multicast protocols in the Network Layer; TCP/UDP and ATM Adaptation Layer Protocols in the Transport Layer; and Network Security in the Application Layer.

• Have fun learning!
• Grasp the essential ideas of computer networking:
  • designs, protocols and implementations
  • services and applications
  • various tradeoffs and choices made on current networking technologies
• Learn basic network programming

Prerequisites:

basic C programming in the Unix environment, elementary probability, statistics, computer architecture, basic knowledge on the Unix operating system (processes, file IO, threads), elementary data structures and algorithms (stacks, queues, linked list, etc.)

At the end of this course, each student should be able to:

• Have a good overall picture of computer networking in general and the Internet in particular.
• Have a rough idea of how various networking components (hardware/software) work and where they belong in the 5-layer protocol stack.
• Know how to do network programming in C under Unix: TCP/UDP sockets, network I/O multiplexing, design a fairly complex network program following a specified protocol, ...
• Know how to do basic performance analysis of many popular networking protocols: MAC layer protocols, data link flow control protocols, transport layer protocols, congestion control protocols, ...
• Start reading more advanced/research-oriented networking materials.
• Find the field of computer networking interesting and worth studying.

References:

• Required Textbook: James F. F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, "Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet", 5th edition, Addison Wesley.
  
• Highly recommended: W. Richard Stevens, "UNIX Network Programming : Networking APIs : Sockets and XTI : Volume 1, Second Edition", Prentice Hall, Oct 1997, ISBN: 013490012X.
• Other references:
  • W. Richard Stevens, "UNIX Network Programming : Networking APIs : Sockets and XTI : Volume 1, Second Edition ", Prentice Hall, Oct 1997, ISBN: 013490012X.
  • W. Richard Stevens, "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Evironment," Addison-Wesley, 1992, ISBN 0-201-56317-7.
  • Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 4th edition, The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking.
  • Andrew Tanenbaum, Computer Networks Prentice Hall PTR; 4 edition (August 9, 2002), 912pp.
  • Douglas E. Comer, "Internetworking with TCP/IP, Volume 1: Principles, Protocols, and Architectures, Fourth Edition 4TH ", Prentice Hall, Feb 2000, ISBN: 0130183806
  • Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu, " DNS and BIND " , O'Reilly & Associates, May 2001
  • Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford, " Practical UNIX and Internet Security ", O'Reilly & Associates, October 1995
  • Leonard Kleinrock, " Queueing Systems: Theory, Vol. 1 ", Wiley, John & Sons, January 1975
  • Leonard Kleinrock (Editor) " Queueing Systems Volume 2: Computer Applications ", Wiley, John & Sons, April 1976
  • W. Richard Stevens and Gary R. Wright, "The TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols", Addison Wesley Longman, Dec 1993, ISBN: 0201633469
  • W. Richard Stevens and Gary R. Wright, "The TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2: The Implementation", Addison Wesley Longman, Jan 1995, ISBN: 020163354X
  • Morris H. DeGroot, Mark J. Schervish, "Probability and Statistics", Addison Wesley; 3 edition (October 10, 2001), 816pp.
  • Rick Durrett, "Essentials of stochastic processes", Springer; 1 edition (July 30, 1999), 281pp.
  • Ronald W. Wolff, "Stochastic modeling and the theory of queues", Prentice Hall (January 31, 1989), 560pp
• Plus other reading material specified on the class homepage

Course's homepage:

 http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/classes/2009/Fall-589/

Work load:

• Heavy! So, start early!!
• Approx. 80 pages of light reading per week
• 4 written homework assignments (individuals)
• 2 programming assignments (groups of size 2 or individuals)
• 1 midterm exam
• 1 final exam
• Grad students: one more survey on a topic of your choice (suggestions will be given)

Grading policy:

• 4 written assignments: 4% each
• First project: 10%
• Second project: 24%
• Midterm: 20%
• Final: 30%
• Assignments due at the end of the lecture:
  • 1 day late: 20% reduction (percentage is calculated from the maximum possible grade).
  • Each extra day late: 40% reduction
• Incomplete/make-up exams: not given, except in provably extraordinary cases

Academic Honesty:

• No tolerance on plagiarism:
  • 0 on the particular assignment/exam for first attempt
  • Fail the course on the second
  • Consult the University Code of Conduct for details on consequences of academic misconduct
  • See also Prof. Shapiro's page on Academic Integrity of the CSE department: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~shapiro/Courses/integrity.html
• Group study/discussion is encouraged, but the submission must be your own work
• On the Programming Assignments: discussions of ideas are welcome, but NO exchanges of source codes, please.
• I will take cheating VERY VERY seriously. Don't waste your time begging!!

Misc. Items:

• Students are encouraged to discuss homework problems with classmates, but the version submitted must be written on your own, in your own words.
• Absolutely no lame excuses please, such as "I have to go home early, allow me to take the test on Apr 1", or "I had a fight with my girlfriend, which effects my performance", blah blah blah. Even when they are true, they are still lame.
• No extra work in the next semester given to improve your grade.