ECE 50863 - Computer Network Systems

Course Details

Lecture Hours: 3 Credits: 3

Areas of Specialization:

  • Computer Engineering

Counts as:

  • EE Elective
  • CMPE Selective

Normally Offered:

Each Spring

Campus/Online:

On-campus and online

Requisites:

ECE 36800 with a minimum grade of B.

Requisites by Topic:

A broad and strong foundation in undergraduate computer engineering courses, and good programming skills. A prior course in operating systems or networking will be useful but not essential.

Catalog Description:

The goal of this course is to provide students with a proper grounding in the basic concepts and seminal work in computer network protocols and systems, and to introduce students to research in the field. The course will cover classical concepts such as network architecture, switching, routing, congestion control, and quality-of-service, and discuss recent developments in these areas. The course will also cover new developments in networking such as network measurements, network management, overlay networking and peer-to-peer systems, network security, and new network architectures. The course will emphasize a system-oriented and empirical view of Internet architecture.

Required Text(s):

  1. Computer Networks - A Systems Approach , 5th Edition , Larry L. Peterson , Morgan Kaufmann , 2011 , ISBN No. 978-0123850591

Recommended Text(s):

  1. Research papers that cover historical perspective, case studies and more in-depth coverage of recent topics.

Learning Outcomes

A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements will have demonstrated:

  • an understanding of the architectural principles underlying the Internet design
  • an understanding of LAN interconnects, routing algorithms and congestion control algorithms
  • an ability to identify, formulate and solve problems encountered in the design of networks
  • an ability to implement networking systems and rigorously evaluate them using systematic empirical methods

Lecture Outline:

Lectures Major Topics
2 Internet Architectural Principles
2 Layer 2 Interconnects, and Switching
2 Internet Addressing, ARP and DNS
2 Intra-domain Routing
2 Inter-domain Routing (BGP)
2 End-to-End Congestion Control (TCP)
2 Router Mechanisms for Congestion Control
2 Quality of Service
2 Multicast
2 Network Security (SSH, DDoS, Firewalls, Intrusion Detection)
2 Network Management
2 Peer-to-Peer Systems
2 Router Architecture: packet lookup and classification
2 In-Class Exam and Review
2 Student Project Presentations

Assessment Method:

There will be at least one midterm and a final exam. In addition, students will be assessed on class projects.