CSE 646 Advanced Computer Networking, FALL 1996


Course Description

This is an advanced computer networking course, not an introductory course. Students who want to take this course are expected to have the level of maturity in computer networking as covered in the first six chapters of the second edition of Andrew Tanenbaum's "Computer Networks" book, as well as socket programming. If you don't have that background and still want to take this course, please come and talk to me first. An important thing to remember before you decide to take this course is that you have to be committed to do a good job in the homeworks and class projects to learn anything useful out of the course. That is, it is very unlikely to get anything out of the course just by auditing the course. The course will be largely in the form of lectures, although class discussion is certainly always encouraged.

This semester we will take a completely different approach by running the conventional networking syllabus backwards. That is, we will start with the applications layer, and then the transport layer, etc. In the first half of the course, there will be three homeworks, one every three weeks. Each of them involves various amounts of programming. The idea of these exercises is to get the students' hands dirty and to allow them to appreciate the nuts and bolts of carrying out computer networking research. No late homeworks beyond the official deadline will be accepted. In the second half, students are organized as teams to design and implement a network subsystem or application. This semester, we will focus exclusively on the following five projects:

In the end, each team needs to make a 30-minute presentation of their results to the class. In addition, every team is asked to turn in a publication-quality research paper documenting the experiments, results, and analysis. There will also be two midterms, but no final exam.

The grade will be based on: 30% Homework, 30% Midterms, and 40% Project. The official textbook is the third edition of Tanenbaum's book. In addition, a paper collection that costs $10 will be distributed as the class progresses. The workload is estimated to be about 10 hours per week, excluding the project effort, although previous students found this estimate to be conservative. The first class is on 9/5 (Thursday).


Administrative Matters


Special Needs

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), Room 133 Humanities, 632-6748/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.

Handouts