(Latest Revision -- January 28, 2015)
(01/28/2015: Initial version)

Course Description
for Communication Networks: CS 3000

TERM: Spring 2015

CLASS CODES:

20461 CS 3000 001 Communication Networks Lec 3.0 MW 3:00-3:45 P-104
20462 CS 3000 002 Communication Networks Lab 0.0 MW 3:46-4:15 P-102

INSTRUCTOR: John Sarraillé, Professor of Computer Science

OFFICE: P-286, Professional Schools Building (aka: Demergasso-Bava Hall), Cal State Stanislaus

OFFICE HOURS: (The first day of scheduled office hours is Thursday, January 29, 2015, and the last is Thursday, May 14, 2015.)

E-MAIL: john@ishi.csustan.edu

HOMEPAGE: http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/js.html

PREREQUISITES:

You have to be adequately prepared to take the course. 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 will read much of the Comer book (see below). We'll begin with a somewhat top-down approach to learning the layers, but most of the presentation will be bottom up. We'll concentrate on learning 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 the world wide web (HTTP), file download/transfer utilities (ftp and sftp), electronic mail (e-mail), message, chat, and text-based services, voice over IP (VoIP, P2P services, and logging in to remote computers (ssh). 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:

  1. Comer: Computer Networks and Internets, 6/E; by Douglas E. Comer; published by Addison-Wesley; ISBN-10: 0133587932; ISBN-13: 9780133587937. (Click here to go to Comer's "netbook" site.)

  2. Unix Book: You are required to have a good comprehensive unix reference book. Buy one of the books listed below, or something equivalent:

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT:

You are required to have an account that gives you access to all the Computer Science Department Lab computers. A large set of the computers share a networked file system. When you log into any one of those computers, you are attached to the same home directory and given access to the same set of files.

If you don't have a login for the Computer Science Department Lab computers, then let me know right away. Give me your full name and student ID number, and I'll have an account set up for you. You can send me an e-mail with the information, or give it to me on a piece of paper.

If you have an account but are having trouble accessing it, you can see Deep Gill, our system administrator, about getting things straightened out.

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 at the web sites for Comer's book. (See the links above, under "REQUIRED TEXTS.")

BASIC SCHEDULE INFO:

Class meets MW from 15:00 to 14:15. Currently we are scheduled to begin the class in P-104, and spend the last half hour in P-102. I'm seeing about getting that changed so we have one room reserved for the entire class time. Always come to the assigned classroom for the beginning of class, unless I announce ahead of time that we are going to meet in the lab. Class will be a mix of lecture and lab activities. At times we will go to the lab (P-288) for hands-on computer work.

I expect you to attend all classes and to keep current with the readings and topics covered in lecture and lab.

TIME COMMITMENT:

For each hour of class time, expect that about two to three additional hours of work for CS 3000 will be required. So, in a week with three hours of class time, you might spend up to about nine hours on CS 3000 work outside of class time. If you can't devote that much time to CS 3000, you should take fewer units.

TESTS & GRADING:

Your course grade depends on three components: quizzes on the material in Comer, three article reviews, and a course project.

Normally, your course grade will be computed by giving equal weight to your quiz average, reviews average, and project grade. The exception is that you have to get a passing score in all three categories to pass the course.