Comp 343/443, Computer Networks, Summer 2006

Peter Dordal, Loyola University Chicago Dept of Computer Science.

TTh, 6:00-9:10 pm, LT 410 (windows lab)

The text is the third edition of Peterson & Davie's Computer Networks, A Systems Approach.

My general course groundrules are here. Exams will count for between 70% to 80% of your grade, with homework and programs making up the rest.

Study guides and materials

A brief overview of networks

My course notes - updated for the midterm exam.

Some dates are still wrong. I snipped most of the irrelevant material.

My Ethernet notes

Midterm Study Guide.

Final Exam Study Guide. Answers are here.

Programming Project

The programming project is to implemenet a BUMP client in java. Details and protocol specs are here; there is now a link to an annotated outline of the wump client, as discussed on 6/6/6. The files stalkc.java and stalks.java may also be helpful.

Graduate students are to implement this with an arbitrary window size; for undergrads it suffices to implement this with a window size of 1.

For those who are not CS majors, there is a term-paper option instead. Here are some acceptable topics, or suggest one of your own.

Here is a cute story illustrating, well, maybe the importance of KeepAlive mechanisms. Note that the hacker in question, "bitchchecker", gets disconnected because he hacks his own IP address.
The material divides naturally into three "tracks" that we will alternate between, at will. Here are the tracks: This looks like the traditional four-layer model (LAN/IP/transit/application), but we're not really abiding by any strict layering. Here is further information about what will be covered in each track:

LAN basics

1.1 basics
1.2 layering
1.3 sockets programming intro
2.1 links basics
2.5 reliable transmission (moved up to accomodate TCP)
3.1 switching and forwarding (moved up to accomodate IP)
2.2 encoding
2.3 framing
2.4 error detection
2.6 Ethernet
3.2 bridged Ethernet
3.3 ATM

IP and routing

4.1 IP basics
4.2 Distance-Vector and Link-State Routing
4.3 Subnets, supernets, BGP, and IPv6; backbone structure; AADS v MAE EAST.

TCP and congestion

5.1 UDP
5.2 TCP
5.3 Remote Procedure Call (blast/chan v Sun) (not done)
6.1 Congestion issues
6.2 Queuing models
6.3 TCP congestion management: Reno and Tahoe
6.4 DECbit, RED, and TCP Vegas
6.5 Reservation-based approaches to congestion (not done)


Class-by-class summary: see the nnotes file, "my course notes", above

The following paper has useful information about TCP/IP security: Security Problems in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite by Steve Bellovin.