(Latest Revision -- 01/21/2005)
Course Description
for Communication Networks: CS 3000
TERM: Spring 2005
CLASS CODES:
22940 CS 3000 001 Communication Networks Lec 3.0 MW 12:20-13:18 P-102
22941 CS 3002 001 Communication Networks Lab 0.0 F 12:20-13:18 P-102
INSTRUCTOR: John Sarraille, Professor of Computer Science
OFFICE:
P-286, Professional Schools Building, Cal State
Stanislaus
OFFICE HOURS:
Mon-Wed-Fri 10:10-11:10, 13:25-14:25,
or by appointment
(Office hours commence on Monday, Feb 14, 2005 and end on Friday May 20, 2005.
There will be no classes or office hours during Spring Break:
March 28 to April 01.)
E-MAIL:
john@ishi.csustan.edu
HOMEPAGE:
http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/jsHomepage.html
PREREQUISITES:
You have to be adequately prepared for taking this course, CS 3000. Check
with me if you have not passed Computer Programming II (CS 2500), or the
equivalent.
COURSE COVERAGE & OBJECTIVES:
Networking is something you learn in layers. We are going to read most of
the Comer book in order to learn networking starting from the lowest level
and proceeding upwards. We'll be concentrating on how the Internet works,
but the lessons will apply more generally.
In parallel, we will work on making sure that everyone in the class has
exposure to some basic networking applications. Some of the ones popular with
general audiences are file download/transfer utilities (ftp and sftp),
electronic mail (e-mail), the world wide web, message & chat service, IP
telephone, electronic bulletin boards (Usenet), and logging in to remote
computers (ssh, telnet & rlogin). For the more technically minded there are
such things as arp, whois, ping, netstat, traceroute, dig, nslookup, WAIS,
DNS, LDAP, and (of course) HTML.
We also want to make sure that everybody gets some hands-on exposure to
networking.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Computer Networks and Internets (Bk/CD-ROM), 4/e, by Douglas E.
Comer & Ralph E. Droms, published by Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-143351-2.
http://www.netbook.cs.purdue.edu/index.htm
- You are required to have a good comprehensive unix reference
book. Buy one of the books listed below, or something
equivalent:
- UNIX in a Nutshell: System V Edition, 3rd Edition by Arnold
Robbins, published by O'Reilly & Associates, ISBN 1-56592-427-4,
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/unixnut3/
- UNIX System V: A Practical Guide, 3/e by Mark G. Sobell,
published by Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-8053-7565-1,
http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,080537566X,00.html
REQUIRED EQUIPMENT:
You need an account on the Computer Science Department Sun Ultra's. Let me
know if don't have one.
NETWORK AVAILABILITY OF COURSE MATERIALS:
Course documents, assignments, supplements, and so on will be available in
the class web space:
http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/Classes/CS3000/
Also, numerous learning aids are available here:
http://www.netbook.cs.purdue.edu/index.htm
at the textbook's web site. Much or all of that material is contained on the
CD that comes with the book.
BASIC SCHEDULE INFO:
Class meets MWF from 12:20-13:18 in P-102.
You must sign up separately for CS 3000 (lecture) and CS 3002 (lab). Each
class session is a mixture of lab and lecture activities. When we need to, we
will go to P-288 for hands-on computer work.
I expect you to attend all classes and to keep current with everything that's
happening.
In addition to your three hours per week of in-class time, expect to spend
about six to nine hours per week doing work related to CS 3000. I base
this estimate on the assumption that in a normal fifteen-week semester a
college student works a total of three to four hours per week for every unit
carried.
TESTS & GRADING:
Your course grade depends on four components: homework assignments, three
quizzes on the material in Comer, four article reviews, and a course project.
Normally, your course grade will be computed by giving equal weight to your
homework average, quiz average, reviews average, and project grade. The
exception is that you have to get a passing score in all four categories to
pass the course.