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Digital Communication II
Lecturers: Prof. J.A. Crowcroft and Dr I.A. Pratt
No. of lectures and examples classes: 20 + 4
Prerequisite course: Digital Communication I
This course is a prerequisite for Security (Part II), Advanced Systems Topics (Part II).
Aims
This course aims to provide a detailed understanding of how computer
networks operate, through the examples of the Internet, and presents
ways to build such systems. It also covers a selection of topics
which relate to recent trends in digital communications systems.
The material falls roughly into two halves: Protocols, and Technologies.
Lectures
- Introduction.
Course overview. Abstraction, layering. The OSI reference model.
[IAP/JAC]
- The Internet: IP.
IP overview/review. Networking in Unix: structures, buffering,
sockets, network interfaces. IP addresses and (simple) routing.
Subnetting. IP checksum. Fragmentation. [JAC]
- The Internet: routing.
ROADS and CIDR. Terminology: AS, IGP, EGP. Routing protocols: distance
vector versus link state. Examples: RIP, OSPF. AS routing:
I-BGP/E-BGP, metrics. [JAC, 2 lectures]
- The Internet: network resource management.
Differentiated and integrated services. Signalling (RSVP) and
admission control, forwarding and scheduling, policing and shaping.
The future. [JAC, 2 lectures]
- The Internet: multicast and QoS routing.
Other TCP details. Internet multicast model.
Applications. Basic implementation. Refinements. [JAC, 2 lectures]
- The Internet: UDP, TCP.
TCP operation, state transitions. Handling loss: acks and retransmissions.
Estimating RTT. Basic congestion control. Improving things: TCP
vegas, SACKs, ECN. [JAC, 2 lectures]
- The Internet: applications, multimedia, NFS & HTTP.
RTP operation, playout adaption; RPC & network file systems;
HTTP, HTTP 1.1 - making it all work [JAC/IAP, 2 lectures]
- The Internet: IPv6.
Concepts. Internet multicast model. Applications. Basic implementation.
Refinements. Congestion control. [RJB]
- ATM case study.
Multiplexing and virtual circuits. Signalling. ATM adaption
layers. Quality of service CBR, VBR, ABR. [IAP, 2 lectures]
- Wide area networks.
Fibre technology. Long-haul link design. Dense wave division
multiplexing. Sonet/SDH. MPLS. Packet over SONET. Optical switching. [IAP]
- Access networks.
Cable modems. xDSL. Fixed wireless. Satellite. Firewalls and network
address translation. [IAP]
- Local area networks and system area networks.
Fast/Gigabit Ethernet. Optimising latency. Host interface
design. User-space protocol processing. [IAP]
- Congestion pricing.
Model and motivation. Practical considerations. The future. [DRM]
- Additional Topics. To be announced. [IAP+]
Objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to
- enumerate and explain the layers of the OSI reference model
- compare and contrast connectionless and connection-oriented
networks
- explain how IP routing works
- describe the components of the Internet resource management system
- describe how and why TCP attempts to handle congestion in the
network
Recommended books
Keshav, S. (1997).
An engineering approach to computer networking.
Addison-Wesley (1st ed.). ISBN: 0201634422
Alternative to Keshav:
Davie, B.S., Peterson, L.L. & Clark, D. (1999).
Computer networks: a systems approach.
Morgan Kaufmann (2nd ed.). ISBN: 1558605142
Stevens, W.R. (1994).
TCP/IP illustrated, volume 1: the protocols.
Addison-Wesley (1st ed.). ISBN: 0201633469
Alternative to Stevens:
Comer, D. (2000).
Internetworking with TCP/IP vol. I: principles, protocols, and
architecture.
Prentice Hall (4th ed.). ISBN: 0130183806
Background:
Krishnamurthy, B. & Rexford, J. (2001).
Web Protocols and practice: HTTP/1.1, networking protocols,
caching, and traffic measurement.
Addison-Wesley (1st ed.). ISBN: 0201710889
Next: Human-Computer Interaction
Up: Michaelmas Term 2003: Part
Previous: Denotational Semantics
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Christine Northeast
Thu Sep 4 15:29:01 BST 2003