This course is no longer offered

20398 Computer Networks I 1

Credits: 4 advanced credits in Computer Science

Prerequisites: Students must fulfill all English requirements and take bibliographic instruction in the Library.

Required: Introduction to Statistics and Probability for Science Students (or Introduction to Statistics for Students of Social Sciences I or Probability for Computer Science Students); Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms (or Data Structures)

Recommended: Algorithms

The course is based on the first five chapters of Computer Networks (4th ed.), by A.S. Tanenbaum (Prentice Hall, 2003).

The course presents the principles of computer networks and provides tools for mathematical analysis of communication protocols. The course is based on a layer model, similar in spirit to the TCP/IP model which divides the abstraction levels into five layers. Emphasis is on the network communication subnet – the three bottom layers: the physical layer, the data link layer and the network layer.

Topics: Introduction – introduction to computer networks in general and the five layer model in particular, survey of other layer models and the role of the layers on which they are based, survey of international standards organizations and details of some of the important standards, examples of different network types; The physical layer – theoretical analysis of data communication, survey of transmission media, multiplexing methods, switching methods, discussion of ADSL technology, cellular telephony, communication satellites; The data link layer – error detection and correction, flow control, analysis and comparison of the efficiency of elementary data link protocols, protocol specification and verification, example data link protocols, the data link layer in the Internet; The medium access control sublayer – multiple access protocols, the 802.3 standard for LANs (Ethernet), standards for wireless networks (Bluetooth, 802.16, 802.11), bridging; The network layer – various routing algorithms, congestion control, quality of service (QoS), internetworking, the network layer in the Internet.


1There is some overlap in the content of this and other courses. For details, see Overlapping Courses.