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Lecturer: Professor I.M. Leslie
(iml@cl.cam.ac.uk)
No. of lectures: 12
This course is a prerequisite for Digital Communication II (Part II), Distributed Systems (Part II) and
Security (Part II).
Aims
The aims of this course are to develop an understanding of communications
networks from a wide perspective, within a framework of principles rather than
technologies or architectures. Technologies and architectures will, however,
be used as examples and motivation.
Lectures
- Scope.
Two example systems: Ethernet and the telephone system: basic
operation; common issues; differing constraints; differing approaches.
- Partitioning the problem.
Abstraction, service versus implementation; layering as a
restricted form of abstraction; motivation for layering; the channel
as an abstraction; layered channels.
- Fundamental transmission.
Emphasis on the service provided by physical channel; limitations:
noise, attenuation. Channel capacity (bandwidth). Modulation
techniques for digital systems.
- Coding.
Coding as a general concept: modulation as a form of coding,
A-D-D-A, error correcting and detecting codes, other forms of coding,
relation to layering.
- Multiplexing.
Basic definitions, FDM, synchronous and asynchronous TDM. Circuit
switching, packet switching, ATM. Local area networks with particular
emphasis on media access control.
- Switching and routing.
Introduction from LAN perspective (repeaters, bridges, routers).
Fundamental view of switching extended to telephone network,
connectionless versus connection oriented.
- Naming, addressing and routing.
Service access points, binding. Hierarchical versus flat address
spaces. Routing classifications and algorithms.
- Protocols and state.
Imperfect view of state at far end of channel. ARQ as an example
of an error control protocol; sliding window ARQ as an example of a
flow control protocol; flow control in general: X.25 as an example.
- Standards.
Role of standards, dynamics of standards process, standards
bodies.
Objectives
At the end of the course students should
- be able to analyse a communication system by separating out the
different functions provided by the network
- understand that there are fundamental limits to physical transmission
systems
- understand the general principles behind multiplexing, addressing,
routing and stateful protocols as well as specific examples of each
- understand what FEC is and how CRCs work
- be able to compare communications systems in how they solve
similar problems
Recommended books
Comer, D. & Stevens, D. (1995). Internetworking with TCP-IP,
vol. 1 and 2. Prentice-Hall (3rd ed.).
Halsall, F. (1992). Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open
Systems. Addison-Wesley (3rd ed.).
Schwartz, M. (1987). Telecommunication Networks: Protocols, Modeling
and Analysis. Addison-Wesley.
Next: Prolog for Artificial Intelligence
Up: Lent Term 2000: Part
Previous: Computation Theory
Christine Northeast
Mon Sep 20 10:28:43 BST 1999