Cleveland State University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

EEC 484/584 Computer Networks

Fall Semester 2006

Course Objectives:          This course provides a comprehensive overview of computer networks. Topics include network architectures, communication protocols; data link control, medium access control, LANS and MANS; network layer, TCP/IP; and network security

Textbook:                         Computer Networks, by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 2003, 4th Edition.

Recommended Book:      Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, Addison-Wesley, 2004, 3rd Edition

Instructor:                        Dr. Wenbing Zhao
Office:       SH434

Phone:       (216) 523-7480

Fax:           (216) 687-5405

E-mail:       wenbing at ieee dot org

Lecture time: T Th 4:00-5:50pm (session 1); M W 2:00-3:50pm (session 2)

Office hours: M W 4:00-6:00pm and by appointment

 

Tentative Schedule for M/W session

Tentative Schedule for T/Th session

 

Project 1 instruction is posted below (9/18/2006).

Project 2 instruction is posted below (11/12/2006).

 

Projects

For individual or a team of two. Open to alternative project ideas. Java skeleton code and binary jar file of a reference implementation for each project will be provided. Required submissions for each project:

  • Project report describing design, implementation, user’s guide for your program, and performance measurement results. If you have used other people’s work, you must cite them properly. Not doing so will be regarded as act of plagiarism and will lead to academic consequences based the CSU student code of conduct.
  • Fully commented source code
  • Test input and output data
  • Demonstration and possibly source code review. If you are found that you do not understand, or cannot explain clearly, the code and the program for your projects during the demo and code review, you will not get any credit. The evaluation is individual based. Different team members might not get the same credit.

Project #1: Reliable point-to-point communication on lossy medium. You are expected to implement the PAR reliable communication protocol. Project instruction is here.

Project #2: Implementation of the sliding windows protocol (graduate student only). Undergraduate students can complete this project for extra credit. Project instruction is here.

 

 

Quizzes

There is no makeup quiz. The duration of a quiz is about one hour or less. The quizzes are closed book and closed notes, except that you are allowed to bring with you a one-page cheat sheet not larger than the US letter size (double-sided allowed). The scores of the best four quizzes (out of a total of five) will be counted towards the final grade.

 

Labs

There are 5 labs on HTTP, DNS, Ethernet & DHCP, IP & ICMP and TCP. They are all based on the Ethereal tool. Since undergraduate students will be required to take a computer engineering lab course (for now), which may overlap with these labs, the labs are optional for undergraduate students. That said, undergraduate students are strongly encouraged to take the labs option. The labs are mandatory for graduate students. There will be no makeup lab, and no extension will be granted for lab reports. Exception may be granted to those who have strong background to complete the labs without my supervision (in which case, you do not have to show up during the designated lab sessions. However, lab reports are still required). If you are granted an exception, the related requirement on the lab session attendance for class participation credit is automatically removed.

 

Class Participation

10% of the course credit is allocated to encourage student class participation. I may perform a roll call in the beginning of each class to determine the attendance. To obtain the full credit for class participation, you must satisfy the following conditions:

  • You do not miss more than 2 lectures
  • You do not miss any quiz and lab sessions (if you choose to the labs option)
  • You have asked at least 10 questions during the semester. You are also encouraged to give me advice on how you would like me to improve my teaching to make it more conducive. For each piece of advice, it will be counted as 2 questions.

To help me keep track who asked me questions, please send me an email with the following information for each question you have asked within 24 hours after the lecture:

  • The question you asked
  • My response
  • Your comment on my response and suggestion for improvement, if any

 

Grading

Class participation 10%

Quizzes 40%

Labs (20% for graduate students; 40% for undergraduate students*)

Projects (30% for graduate students [project#1 10%, project#2 20%]; 10% for undergraduate students)

 

* Labs are optional for undergraduate students. If you choose not to do the labs, the quizzes will be counted as 60% and the project (#1) will be counted as 30%.