COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
ECSE-4670 Fall 2000

Formerly known as 35.468 and 35.467.

Goals

Introduce the basic concepts of computer and communication networks.
Provide an in-depth view of network architecture and design.
Illustrate concepts with important network architectures and protocols such as Internet and Ethernet.

Prerequisite

Some background in probability such as in Probability for Engineering Applications, ECSE-4500, Discrete Structures, MATH-4170, or Modeling and Analysis of Uncertainty, ENGR-2600.

Instructor

Prof. K.S. Vastola

Syllabus

The most recent syllabus provides basic info about the course and a list of references. It is available in postscript and pdf formats.

Textbook

A.S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 1996.

Errors and clarifications for the text.

Class Hours, Fall 2000

Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:00 to 3:15 pm in DCC 337.

TA's

Mr. Adnan El-Nasan (contact point for all students)
ccnta@networks.ecse.rpi.edu
518-276-8229
Office: JEC 6031
Office hours: Monday, Thursday 1:00pm--2:00pm.

Homework

HW1, due 9/12/00: Tanenbaum Ch 1/ #3, 5, 13, 15, 26; Ch 2/ #26, 33.

HW2, due 9/22/00: Tanenbaum Ch 3/ #1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 25.

HW3 in postscript or HW3 in PDF.
Note that problem 6.c has been removed from HW#3.
HW3 solutions in postscript or HW3 solutions in PDF.
Note that these are the corrected solutions.

HW4 in postscript or HW4 in PDF.
HW4 solutions in postscript or HW4 solutions in PDF.

HW5 in postscript or HW5 in PDF.
Note that this is a 2-page assignment.
HW5 solutions in postscript or HW5 solutions in PDF.

HW6, due 11/21/00: Tanenbaum Ch 4/ #1, 3, 4, 14, 17, 20, 21, 26.
HW6 solutions in postscript or HW6 solutions in PDF.

HW7, due 12/1/00: Tanenbaum Ch 4/ #31, 37, 40, 41; Ch 5/ #26, 27, 28, 29.

HW7 solutions in postscript or HW7 solutions in PDF.

HW8, due 12/5/00: Tanenbaum Ch 6/ #14, 18, 21.
HW8 solutions in postscript or HW8 solutions in PDF.

Exams

The midterm exam was Tuesday, October 17 in class.
The final exam will be in class on Friday, December 8.

This year's final exam review is available in postscript or PDF.

Class Overheads

CCN Class Overheads are available in postscript.

The slides for Prof. Kurose's lectures are available here and here and in Powerpoint.

RSVP's Course Page

RPI's Professional and Distance Education Program (AKA RSVP) has a WebCT page for this course.

WWW Resources

Feel free to use these like other resources, as a learning aid or to check your HW answers, but note that you will not be able to bring them into the exams. If you discover other resources you find useful in CCN, please let me know so that I can make them available here.

See my homepage for links to various general resources on the Web such as technical societies and standards organizations.
A Java applet for Dijkstra's Algorithm written by Carla Laffra of PACE University.
My class notes on Probability and Performance Modeling and Analysis of Packet-Switched Networks are available in HTML. Since these notes are from 1995, I've used the word IMP instead of Router.
The Performance notes have been enhanced with Java applets of various queueing systems as part of Project Links. To get more directly to the applets and be motivated to learn probability, click here.

K.S. Vastola / URL for this page = http://networks.ecse.rpi.edu/~vastola/ccn/

COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKSECSE-4670 Fall 2000