Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Torsten Braun

Description

This course teaches the fundamental concepts of Computer Networking and Internet Technology which are important for distributed business and multimedia applications. To cope with the inherent complexity of the subject, we follow a modular and layered approach which is also reflected in the design and implementation of advanced communication systems.
After introducing fundamental concepts and design principles of communication systems and the Internet, we address some hardware and physical layer issues which are important to understand the design principles of higher layer communication protocols and applications. We then discuss in the second part what is required to support reliable and efficient communication between systems that are directly connected via a wired or wireless link. An important issue is fair and efficient access to transmission media that are shared by several devices such as Ethernet or Wireless LAN.
The Internet is a network of networks, based on the principle of packet switching. These concepts and related protocols such as the Internet Protocol including addressing schemes and related control protocols and mechanisms will be discussed in the third part. Moreover, routing protocols to support forwarding decisions will be discussed. The third part ends with descriptions of more recent developments for multicast communications and traffic engineering. The Internet serves as a network to exchange data between users and/or their computers in an end-to-end manner. Since the Internet does not provide a reliable service, communication protocols implemented in end systems must perform this task if required. We present UDP and TCP as the most important transport protocols in the Internet and discuss reasons for congestion as well as mechanisms to avoid these. Congestion and resulting buffer overflows are the main reasons for packet loss in the Internet. Furthermore, end-to-end protocols are required to support real-time audio/video communications as well as remote procedure calls, as for example in distributed file systems.
Applications are running on top of end-to-end protocols. While email and file transfer were developed in the early years of the Internet, other applications such as the World Wide Web, web services, Peer-to-Peer, IP telephony or IP TV emerged during the last decades. Protocols for resolving domain names and management of end systems and network devices can also be considered as application level protocols. These protocols use specific data presentation formats and encodings. Security functions are increasingly needed on all levels of the communication system, but in particular on the application level.

Outline

Part I: Fundamentals

1. Foundations (Chapter 1 of recommended book)

Part II: Data Link Communications

2. Physical and Link Layer Issues (Chapters 2.1-2.5)
3. Medium Access (Chapters 2.6 and 2.8)

Part III: Internetworking

4. Packet Switching (Chapter 3)
5. Internetworking (Chapter 4.1)
6. Routing (Chapter 4.2)
7. Global Internet (Chapter 4.3)
8. Multicast and MPLS (Chapters 4.4 and 4.5)

Part IV: End-to-End Communication

9. Transport Protocols (Chapters 5.1 and 5.2)
10. Remote Procedure Call and Real-Time Transport (Chapters 5.3 and 5.4)
11. Congestion Control (Chapters 6.1-6.4)

Part V: Data Presentation and Applications

12. End-to-End Data (Chapter 7)
13. Network Security (Chapter 8)
14. Applications (Chapter 9)

Literature

The course is based on the following textbook:

Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie: Computer Networks A Systems Approach, 4th Edition, The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking, ISBN: 978-0-12-374013-7

http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780123740137

Students need to have a copy of this book.

Learning Objectives

Successful participation in this course will enable students to:

• understand the fundamental concepts, mechanisms and terminology of computer networks and Internet technology as applied in network design, business data communications and distributed information systems,
• describe, explain and evaluate mechanisms, protocols, algorithms that are required for secure multimedia data communication over wired/wireless networks as well as the management of end systems and network devices,
• apply and extend their knowledge in a rapidly changing environment, based on a sound understanding of the long-term valid underlying principles.

Method of teaching

The course is a type 5 course (Web-supported textbook course) based on a textbook, which students are required to buy or download from the Internet. You read and reflect the chapters by yourself. Review questions, topics for discussion, exercises, case studies, and practical hand-on assignments etc. are given weekly on a website. Answers and solutions to assignments are submitted electronically and assessed. A discussion forum is moderated by the lecturer.

Requirements

In order to understand the protocol algorithm model examples and solve the related exercises, participants should be familiar with basic programming concepts and environments.

Credits

7.0 credit points