Computer Networking Lecture Notes

4 September 2012 • Introduction

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Course Description

• An introductory, graduate-level computer networks course.
  • Inside the network, mostly.
  • Upper level, software oriented network view.
  • Concepts and implementation, abstractly.
• Prereqs:
  • Foundations (official, 502) and operating systems (unofficial, 505).

Classes

Classes meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:25 to 9:15 in HH 209.

Schedule

• No classes
  • Thursday, 11 October, Fall Break
  • Thursday, 22 November, Thanksgiving
• Drop day Tuesday, 6 November.
• Last day Thursday, 13 December.

  

Objectives

• Learn networking basics: purpose, mechanism, and design.
  • The major network layers and their interactions.
  • High-level understanding of network services at all layers.
  • Basic implementation details.
• Maintain your balance on uneven and rapidly changing terrain.

Example

Dan Kusnetzky, Program Vice President for System Software at IDC, makes the following illustrative comparison. “If I was trying to get forty tons of gravel from New Jersey across the Hudson river to New York City, I could use one truck and fight traffic and the lines at the toll booth to move it in. Or, I could divide it into 40 1-ton loads, give the drivers radios to communicate, and they can get there faster, because they’re more agile and can find the most efficient route.”

Enterprise Grid Computing, Clay Andres
Linux Magazine, October 2004

Instructor

• Richard Clayton, HH 318 (the adjunct’s office).
  • rclayton@monmouth.edu
• Office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:20 to 7:20, in HH 318.
  • Make an appointment for other times.

Grading

• Grading comes from tests and homework assignments.
  • Three tests, roughly one a month.
  • Seven homework assignments, one per two-week section.
• No other grade sources: not attendance, not class participation, not …
  • In particular, no mid-term or final exams.

Grades

• The final grade is the straight, weighted average of the eight highest test and homework grades.
  • Three tests and five homework grades.
  • The two lowest homework grades are dropped.
• No grades are scaled to a curve.

Grade Ranges

• The usual grade ranges are in effect:

  95	≤	A
  90	≤	A-	<	95
  86.6	≤	B+	<	90
  83.3	≤	B	<	86.6
  80	≤	B-	<	83.3
  76.6	≤	C+	<	80
  73.3	≤	C	<	76.6
  70	≤	C-	<	73.3
  		F	<	70

Grade Interpretation.

• The grade meanings in this class:

  A:		You got the right answer.
  B:		You got the almost right answer.
  C:		You’re graduate students; such grades don’t exist.

• These interpretations hold for everything: homework, tests, final grades.

Grade Interpretation..

• Grades start at the 5s: 95 or 85.
• Grades move up and down from 5 based on qualities.
  • Clear and concise answers.
  • Work required to understand.

Textbook

• There is a textbook for this class.
• Pick your own textbook.
  • But make sure you have at least one.
  • There is a textbook for this class.
• Compare table of contents and index against the syllabus.
  • See the bibliography for recommendations.

E-Mail

• Make sure your e-mail works, and you know how to work it.
• The class e-mail address is censored.
  • Mail to each goes to everybody.

E-Mail Archive

• E-mail is stored in a web-accessible hyper-mail archive.
  • www.monmouth.edu/~rclayton/mail-archives/f12-514/archive/index.html
  • or tinyurl.com/mucs514f12m
• E-mail to the mailing list is added to the archive.
  • E-mail to me is also added if of general interest.
  • Unless requested not to.

Home Page

• The class home page is
  • www.monmouth.edu/~rclayton/web-pages/f12-514/index.html
  • Or tinyurl.com/mucs514f12h (note the ‘h’).
• The lecture schedule is
  • www.monmouth.edu/~rclayton/web-pages/f12-512/schedule.html
  • Or tinyurl.com/mucs514f12s (note the ‘s’).

Screencasts

• Lectures will recorded and be made available at the Vimeo CS 514 screencast channel.

  

Downloading

Microblogging

• Follow mucs514 on Twitter or Identi.ca.

  • 

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Assistance

• See me if you need special assistance.
  • If you know what I’m talking about, you know what to do.
  • If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it doesn’t matter.

Attendance

• I have no attendance policy for lectures; you may attend them or not.
  • However, you are responsible for everything that goes on during lectures.
• I expect good attendance for other parts of the course, tests in particular.
  • Repeated violations I have to attend to will put me in an uncharitable mood.

Cheating

• I don’t care how you put knowledge in your head.
  • But I do care that knowledge comes out of your head.
• Cheating is not doing your own work.
  • Copying assignments, copying test answers is cheating.
  • Cut ‘n’ paste research on the Web is cheating.

Adjudication

• The mechanism for dealing with cheating is:
  1. Give everybody zeros.
  2. Judge mitigating evidence and adjust accordingly.
  3. Elevate for further adjudication.
• Step 2 is the tricky one.
  • It’s gotten progressively brutish and short over the years.

Working Together

• Paradoxically, I recommend working together.
  • On assignments, and studying, not on tests.
• To avoid problems, only make copies inside your head.
  • a.k.a. learning.

Grade Complaints

• I encourage students to question their grades.
• But
  1. I only argue about answers.
  2. You have a limited time to raise questions.
  3. Make sure you understand my answers.

Late Assignments

• Don’t hand in assignments late.
  • Late penalties are steep.
  • You’re not going to be able to climb out of the hole.
• Falling behind in assignments is generally a bad idea.
  • It’s double bad for linked assignments.

Missing Tests

• Let me know if you’re going to miss a test.
  • You can schedule a make-up at your convenience.
• Unexcused absences are handled more severely.
  • The tests are harder.
  • The scheduling is much harder.

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This page last modified on 2012 September 5.