Course Description

Basic concepts in networking, the OSI model, error detection codes, flow control, routing, medium access control, and high-speed networks.

Course Objectives

• Understand the challenges of network communication.
  
• Understand the basics of network communication.
  
• Understand the operation of the protocols that are used inside the Internet.

Course Objectives and Department Mission

Because the Internet is such an important part of the communications infrastructure, understanding how it works is of benefit to everyone. Understanding the Internet in detail is especially critical for Computer Science students. Not only do students learn how communication takes place, but the Internet serves as an excellent example of a highly distributed and complex computer system. As a consequence, understanding the Internet fits well with the CS Department's Mission.

Course Information

• Lecture Time/Place
  • Tuesday/Thursday--11:00am to 12:15pm (CTL aka the Digital Classroom aka Trailer 932)

• Discussion Time/Place
  • Wednesday--10:00am to 10:50am (Phelps 3505)
    
    • First discussion is April 11th (and it will be a make-up lecture)
      
    • Last discussion is June 6th
      

  • Course WWW Site: http://www.moodle.cs.ucsb.edu/course/view.php?id=43
    • Moodle site requires "enrollment code", which is "cs176a"

  • Course Material
    • Two different styles of the class textbook:
      
      • [Requred] J. Kurose and K. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet", Addison-Wesley, (2nd edition--July 2002) or (3rd edition--May 2004).
        
        • Good descriptive text, but top-down instead of bottom-up. Also, a bit light on detail in some places, expect to have to occassionaly look elsewhere for more detail.
          
        • Note: Third edition was recently finished. Second edition (published July 2002) should be fine. First edition which is now really old is probably not fine. In any case, I show the different reading assignments for the second edition and third edition in the reading assignments.

      • [Optional] Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition, August 2002.
        
        • Terse but thorough. Some of the explanations can be quite confusing.
        • Note: I used this book several years ago and while it still has some useful information, I tend to go by Kurose/Ross more.
          

    • http://www.google.com/
      • Learn it, know it, love it.

    • CS176A from Spring 2006
      • A very similar version of this course was taught Spring 2006.
      • Note: I'm telling everyone in order to be fair... much of the content is the same, but cheating will be hard because the exams and assignments will be different. Still, there is some potentially useful content there.

    • Shiv Kalyanaraman's Online Computer Networking Lessons
      • A colleaque has put together some useful lessons. Try it, you might like it!

• Required Prerequisites: PSTAT120A or ECE139.
  

• Recommended Prerequisites: PSTAT120B and CS170.

Instructor Information

Kevin Almeroth (almeroth@cs.ucsb.edu)
Office Location: 2113, Engineering I
Office Hours: 10:00am-11:00am and 12:30pm-1:30pm on Tue/Thur; by appointment, or if my door is open.

Teaching Assistants

Brett Stone-Gross (bstone@cs.ucsb.edu)
Office Location: 2152A, Engineering I (the NMSL/MOMENT Lab)
Office Hours: 11:00am-1:00pm on Wed

Hangjin Zhang (hangjin@cs.ucsb.edu)
Office Location: 2152A, Engineering I (the NMSL/MOMENT Lab)
Office Hours: 1:00pm-3:00pm on Mon

Student Evaluation

• 40%: Homeworks
  
  • 08%: Homework #1 [April 18 @ 11:59pm]
    
  • 08%: Homework #2 [May 2 @ 11:59pm]
    
  • 24%: Homework #3 [June 7 @ 11:59pm]
    
• 25%: Midterm Exam [May 3]
  
• 35%: Final Exam [June 13]
  
• 05%: Class Participation
  
  NOTE#1: Class participation acts like extra credit.
  NOTE#2: There is no late homework/exam make-up. All missed homeworks/exams earn a 0.
  NOTE#3: All exams are closed notes/books/calculator/etc.
  
  

Course Outline