Institutionen för datorteknik

Course Information

Data Communication DVP Fall 98

Introduction

The subject data communication include architectures, design methods and implementation techniques for the exchange of data between computers in computer networks.

The importance of computer networks has increased dramatically with the recent wide spread usage of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Knowledge of data communication is necessary for the design of personal telecommunication systems, remote data base systems, secure electronic commerce, distributed systems and other cooperating computer systems.

The objective with this course is to introduce, study and to discuss the main issues in data communication. It will include layered communication architectures, transmission techniques, protocol design, network organization, security, implementation techniques and user-to-user data exchange principles. The course has practical assignments on network operation, protocol design and implementation.

Prerequisites

The course participants must have passed the following courses, or have corresponding knowledge: Algorithm and Data Structures, Computer Architectures, Operating Systems and basic knowledge about Unix and C.

Instructors

Contacts with the instructors are preferably done via data communication means, i.e. via electronic mail.

Course home page and news

The course has a World Wide Web home page: http://www.docs.uu.se/~perg/course/datakom/dv98/index.swe.html.
News, some lectures notes, assignments, result announcement and other course related information will be announced on the page besides ordinary class room announcements. It is assumed that all students regularly are reading this page. Results from exams and assignments can only be reached from computers at Polacksbacken.

Text book and other literature

Recommended reference literature

Additional course material

The text book will be complemented with additional papers, lecture notes, assignments, etc. This material will either be for sale by Magnus Berggren, room 1403, made available on the course home page or distributed in class.

Copies of overhead transparencies for sale:

Parts available on the course home page:

Assignments and laborations

The course has one lab and one assignments. The assignment is:

The lab is:

The lab must be carried out at scheduled laboratory times. The main part of the Client/Server programming assignment must be carried out outside scheduled labtime. The lab and the assignment must be done in groups of two (or one) students.

Assignment reports are given directly to the course assistant Henrik Gulbrandsen, preferebly dropped in his department mailbox no xx, house one, level four. The lab report is given to Ernst Nordström during the lab session or dropped in his department mailbox, house one, level four.

The assignment and the lab will be graded and will be given bonus points if they are turned in in time. Corrected reports can be found outside the DVP expedition at level 2, house 1, and the grade can be found in the in the result file.

Deadlines for the assignment can be found below. Any changes in deadlines are announced on the home page. Assignments turned in later will be corrected and graded sometime before 31/8 1999. At that date the bonus points will also expire and the assignment will not be valid anymore. A student that fails to meet the deadline must register again for a new course instance.

Examination

The course grade is given by:

  1. Written exam.
    (Ordinary exam is December 17, 1998, 8-14, at Post Scriptum 2).
  2. Client-Server assignment.
  3. Network snooping lab.

Maximum course points is 100. The points are given according to the following preliminary distribution:

The assignment and the lab are mandatory and must be of passing quality. Preliminary, the course grade G requires at least 55 points, grade VG at least 70 points or more. Note that it is difficult to pass the course unless the assignment is done in time.

Result announcements

All results will be announced in the result file, which can only be locally accessed at Polacksbacken.

Cheating

At other instances of this course, a few students have been cheating with mandatory assignments. Therefore we want to stress that these assignments must be solved individually or in groups of two students. All participants in a group are assumed to be able to present and explain the groups solutions to the instructors. The assignments represents an important part of the course and we have earlier reported all suspected cheatings to rector magnificus. The Högskoleförordningen is clear on this point:

Paragraf 1: Disciplinär åtgärd får vidtas mot student som ... med otillåtna hjälpmedel eller på annat sätt försöker vilseleda vid prov eller när studieprestation ska bedömas.

...

Paragraf 9: Grundad misstanke om sådan förseelse som anges i Paragraf 1 skall skyndsamt anmälas till rektor.

Preliminary lecture plan

The lectures are divided into different categories:

Note that additional time for the Snooping lab will be scheduled later.

All lecture halls are at Polacksbacken. The first digit represents the building, for example 1=Infanteristen/DoCS, 2=Matematikum, 6=Rullan and 8=Sjukan/Reglerteknik. Room numbers 2001-2005 refer to Ångströmslaboratoriet. The second digit represents the level.


Category Instructor Date Time Room Literature Content
F1 PG 2/11 8-10 1211 Tan-1 Introduction, Why Communication. Computer Networks. 
F2 PG 3/11 8-10 1211 Tan-1 Communication Models, Layering, Architectures, Protocols, Services and Standards.
F3 PG 5/11 8-10 1211 Tan-2 Transmission and physical media. 
F4 PG 5/11 13-15 1211 Tan-3 Data Link Layer. Framing, Error correction and Flow control.
F5 PG 6/11 10-12 1211 Tan-3 Formal Methods. Finite State Machines, SDL. Multiplexing.
F6 EM 9/11 8-10 1211 Tan-4 Media Access protocol basics
U1 EN 10/11 13-15 1211 Ass Client/Server assignment
F7 EM 11/11 8-10 1211 Tan-4 MAC protocols continued, advanced protocols.
U2 EN 12/11 8-12 Labs Ass Ass and lab time, group 1. Client/Server. 1411, 1412, 1413
F8 EM 13/11 8-10 1211 Tan-5 Internetworking - repeaters, bridges
U3 EN 17/11 8-12 Labs Ass Ass and lab. time, group 2. Client/Server.1411, 1412, 1413
U4 EN 17/11 13-17 Labs Ass Ass and lab. time, group 3. Client/Server.1411, 1412, 1413
F9 EM 18/11 8-10 1211 Tan-5 Internetworking - routers
F10 EM 19/11 8-10 1211 Tan-5 Internet, IPv4
F11 EM 20/11 8-10 1211 Tan-5 IPv6, routing, DNS, BGP, OSPF, ARP, RARP, ICMP
F12 PG 24/11 13-15 1211 Tan-6 PPP, Transport layer
F13 PG 25/11 8-10 1211 Tan-6 TCP, UDP, socket programming.
F14 PG 26/11 8-10 1311 Tan-2,4 Wireless systems
F15 PG 30/11 10-12 1311 Tan-6 Mobile and wireless systems
F16 PG 1/12 8-10 1211 Tan-2-6 ATM technology.
U5 EN 2/12 10-12 1145 NA Client/Server assignment advise time 
F17 PG 2/12 13-15 1211 Tan-7 Network Security, Cryptography
F18 PG 7/12 10-12 1311 Tan-7 Network Security, Firewalls.
F19 PG 9/12 8-10 1211 Tan-7 Higher Layer protocols. Email, RFC 822, MIME, PGP, WWW, HTTP.
F20 PG 11/12 13-15 1211 NA Invited lecture and higher layer protocols
Deadline NA 14/12 17 NA NA Assignments: Client/Server and Network services.
F21 PG 15/12 13-15 1211 NA Spare, repetition, problem solving, etc
Exam PG 17/12 8-14 PS2 NA Post Scriptum sal 2
Exam PG TBA TBA TBA NA Preliminary. You need to sign up. Check time and place.
Deadline NA 31/8 17 NA NA Assignments and bonus points expire.

Reading directions

The following chapters and pages in Computer Networks, 3rd edition, by A. Tanenbaum are included in the course. Other literature should be read completely or otherwise according to recommendations in class.

Chapter Pages Content Comments
1 1-47 Introduction Read all. 
  47-61 Historical networks Not required, but good to read once at least.
  61-65 ATM basics Read all
  66-72 Network standardization Read for fun.
2 77-91 Theoretical basis Read all
  94-102 Wireless transmission Read all.
  102-113, 118-124, 155-163 Telephone system Ericsson expects you to know this. Basic stuff,easy reading. Not included in the course.
  114-118 RS 232, RS 449 Basics about your modem. Not included in the course, but....
  130-134 Circuit, message, packet switc. Misplaced chapter - important - read all.
  140-144 ISDN services Not covered, but is basic for your ISDN connection.
  155-168 Cellular radio, satellites Read all.
3 175-229 Data Link Layer Fundamental. Read careful.
  229-235 SLIP and PPP Basic about PPP. For additional information, see Stevens book.
4 243-271 Medium acces protocols Read all.
  275-301 LANs &MANs Read all.
  304-324, 334 Bridges, Routers & High Speed Networks Read all.
5 339-367 Network Layer, routing, Read all, except 370-374
  374-379 Congestion Control Read all.
  396-412 Internetworking,  Read all.
  412-460 IP and protocols, ATM Read all.
6 479-542 Transport Layer, TCP, UDP Read all.
7 577-618 Network security Read all. 577 - 598 can be read quickly.
  622-630 DNS Careful reading. Needed for the assignment.
  643-667 Email, MIME, PGP Read all.
  669-680 Usenet Not included in the course, but good reading.
  681-695 WWW and HTTP Read all.
  695-718 HTM, Java and Security Read yourself if you do not already know it. Will not be tested on the exam.
  723-761 Multimedia Datacom II stuff. Not included