Engineering Faculty Document No. 2-02

January 22, 2003

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

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

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. This course was offered as an experimental course ECE 495R in the Spring 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2001, and Fall 2002 semesters with enrollments of 13, 54, 35, and 41 students, respectively.

Mark J. T. Smith

Professor and Head

Engineering Faculty Document No. 2-02

January 22, 2003

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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.