This course introduces fundamental concepts of telecommunication networks. Underlying engineering principles of telephone networks, computer networks, and integrated networks are discussed. Topics in the course include: telephone and data networks overview; OSI layers; physical layer and coding; data link protocol; flow control, congestion control, routing; local area networks (Ethernet, Wireless, etc.); transport layer; introduction to high-speed networks (MPLS, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet); performance evaluation techniques. More detailed information can be in the course syllabus.
Prerequisites: Probability Theory (36-217 or sequence of 36-211,212 or 36-225,226) and C/C++ programming skill.
Prof. Peter Steenkiste
E-mail: prs@cs.cmu.edu
Office: Wean Hall 8202
Office Hours: Friday, 10-11am
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Christina Johns
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Xiaohui Wang
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Communication Networks, Second Edition, by A. Leon-Garcia and I. Widjaja, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-246352-X.
Lectures will be held Monday and Wednesday in 10:30-12:20AM, in PH 125C. Recitations will be held Friday, 12:30-2:20PM, in DH 2210.
The lecture nodes listed are for this semester for past lectures, but from Fall 2007 for future lectures.
| Week from | Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
| Aug 25 | 1. Introduction | 2. Layered architecture | Sockets intro |
| Sep 1 | No class | 3. Physical layer 1 | - |
| Sep 8 | 4. Physical layer 2 | 5. Physical layer 3 | - |
| Sep 15 | 6. Physical layer 4 + Q | 7. Circuit switching | - |
| Sep 22 | 8. Circuit switching | 9. The telephone network | Demos Project 1 |
| Sep 29 | 10. Datalink 1 | 11. Datalink 2 + Q | - |
| Oct 6 | 12. Datalink 3 | 13. Datalink 4 | Demos Project 2 |
| Oct 13 | 14. Datalink 5 | 15. Datalink wrap up + Q + review | Mid-semester break |
| Oct 20 | Exam 1 | 16. Wireless | - |
| Oct 27 | 17. Network layer 1 | - | Demos Project 3 |
| Nov 3 | 18. Network layer 2 | 19. Network layer 3 | 20. Network layer 4 |
| Nov 10 | 21. Transport 1 + Q | 22. Transport 2 | - |
| Nov 17 | 23. The Web | 24. Peer-to-peer | Demos Project 4 |
| Nov 24 | 25. QoS, traffic engineering + Q | Thanksgiving | Thanksgiving |
| Dec 1 | 26. Review | Exam 2 | - |
There will be 5 quizzes and 2 exams in the course.
Quizzes: Your best 4 out of 5 quizzes will be counted 5% each toward the final grade, for a total of 20%. Each quiz will be given in the last 30 minutes of the lecture on the given date. There will be NO "make-up" quiz if you miss any of these. They will be held in the lecture room.
| Quiz | Date | Description | Solution |
| 1 | Monday Sep 15 | Covers lectures 1-4 | solution |
| 2 | Wednesday Oct 1 | Covers lectures 5-9 | solution |
| 3 | Wednesday Oct 15 | Covers lectures 10-13 | solution |
| 4 | Monday Nov 10 | Lectures 14-18 | solution |
| 5 | Monday Nov 24 | Lecture 19-24 | - |
Exams: The two exams are each 110 minutes long and worth 25% each. Both will be held in the lecture room. The dates are listed in the course schedule.
Exam 1 will cover lectures 1-14. It will be given on Monday Oct 20. Solutions are available here.
Exam 2 will be on the last day of classes.
Problem sets will be assigned throughout the course. These assignments will be collected but will NOT be graded. They are provided to help you understand the material and will not be counted toward the final grade. The solutions will be provided. Homeworks will typically be handed out the week before a quiz, covering the same material as the quiz.
| Homeworks | Description | Out | Due | Solution |
| HW 1 | Lectures 1-4 | Wednesday Sep 3 | Wednesday Sep 10 | hw1 solution |
| HW 2 | Lectures 5-9 | Monday Sep 23 | Monday Sep 29 | hw2 solution |
| HW 3 | Lectures 10-13 | Monday Oct 6 | Monday Oct 13 | hw3 solution |
| HW 4 | Lectures 14-18 | Monday Oct 27 | Wednesday Nov 5 | hw4 solution |
| HW 5 | Lecture 19-23 | Wednesday Nov 12 | Wednesday Nov 19 | - |
The course includes a series of five network software projects. The objective of the first four projects is to expose students to network software programming. The last project is a hands on homework. The five projects combined are worth 30% of the total grade.
The project handouts listed in the table below are from Fall 2007. There will be some changes in 2008, although the themes of the projects will be the same.
| Project | Out | Due | Description | Comments |
| Pr 1 | Friday Aug 29 | Thursday Sep 18 | Sockets | Demos on 9/22 and 9/26 |
| Pr 2 | Friday Sep 19 | Monday Oct 6 (NEW!) | CRC | Demos Oct 10 |
| Pr 3 | Friday Oct 3 | Monday Oct 27 | Go Back N | Demos Oct 31 |
| Pr 4 | Monday Oct 27 | Thursday Nov 20 | Routing | Demos Nov 21 |
| >Pr 5 | Friday Nov 21 | Friday Dec 5 | Monitoring the Internet |
Grades will be determined based on 4 quizzes (20% total), 5 projects (30% total), and 2 exams (50% total). A distribution of grades for assignments returned so far can be found here.