Compuer Networking

Midterm

Student powerpoints

We are surrounded by computer networks. The Internet is the most obvious example, but your cell phone, the GPS device in your car, possibly even your car itself are all devices that operate on computer networks.

In this course, we will study how such networks are constructed, using the five-layer approach:

The physical layer
- What are the different physical media used to transmit information?
- How is different information encoded differently for different media?
The data linklayer
- What circuits and software are needed to ensure rapid and smooth communication between devices using a particular physical medium?
- How can we protect and safeguard the integrity of data being transmitted across a particular medium?
The network layer
- What rules govern how different devices communicate across a particular network?
- How do we ensure that data can be sent intact from one particular device to another?
The transport layer
- How can different applications take advantage of the network?
- How can we make sure that data gets to the proper application on a particular device?
The application layer
- What should the network look like to the user?
- What will be the user's experience in using the network?

Course Goals

The primary goal of this course is to understand how networks are constructed and operated at each of the various layers listed above.

More specifically, when the semester is over you should have a broad understanding of the following areas:

How different physical media place different demands on how signals are sent and bandwidth is shared.
How the integrity of data is preserved at multiple levels of the transmission.
How smart software and protocol design can isolate the details of exactly how messages are transmitted from the programs that are sending and receiving those messages.

Block Coding Programming Assignment

Routing programming assignment

Client/Server programming assignment

Compression/Encryption programming assignment