Engineering Faculty Document No. 2-02

August 19, 2002

Page 1 of 2

TO: The Engineering Faculty

FROM: The Faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

RE: New Undergraduate-Level Course

The faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has approved the following new course. This action is now submitted to the Engineering Faculty with a recommendation for approval.

ECE 463 Introduction to Computer Communication Networks

Sem. 1. Class 3, cr. 3.

Prerequisite: ECE 264 and 302

An introduction to the design and implementation of computer communication networks. The focus is on the concepts and the fundamental design principles that have contributed to the global Internet’s success. Topics include: digital transmission, switching and multiplexing, protocols, LAN, congestion/flow/error control, routing, addressing, performance evaluation, internetworking (Internet) including TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, DNS, etc. This course will include several lab projects.

Reason: The School of ECE was lacking an undergraduate course in this domain. All other high

ranked ECE schools or departments have had an undergraduate course on networking for years (indeed several have more than one undergraduate courses in that domain). This course is an introduction on the underlying principles of the Internet.

Leah H. Jamieson

Professor and Interim Head

Engineering Faculty Document No. 2-02

August 19, 2002

Page 2 of 2

Supporting Documentation:

1. Level: Undergraduate Level

2 Course Instructor: Catherine Rosenberg

3. Course Outline:

Topics Lectures

1. Introduction: history, evolution of networks, standardization 3

2. Digital transmission principles and technologies 3

3. Switching and multiplexing technologies 3

4.                  Design of network: the layered approach, its advantages and

shortcomings, protocols 3

5. Performance evaluation and Quality of Service 3

6. Data link layer: retransmission protocols

(go-back n, selective repeat) and their performances, TEST 4

7. LAN: Ethernet, FDDI, wireless (802.11)…. 3

8.                  Internetworking: introduction, naming, addressing,

IP: fragmentation, error handling 5

9.                  Routing: fundamentals, Intra-domain routing (RIP, OSPF),

Inter-domain routing (BGP) 5

10. TCP/IP and UDP 5

11.              Applications: The World Wide Web: HTTP, mail, FTP, DNS … 4

12.              Exams 3

Total 44

4.                  Text: Computer Networks, A System Approach, 2^nd Edition, Larry Peterson and

Bruce Davie, Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN 1-55860-577-0.