CS GC15/GA07/6007: Communications and Networks

Staff

Soren Sorensen S.Sorensen at cs.ucl.ac.uk 8.10 MPEB
Brad Karp 7.05 MPEB


Meeting Times

UCL Term 2

7th January, 2008 - 7th February, 2008:

  • Monday 4 PM - 6 PM, MPEB 1.02
  • Thursday noon - 1 PM, MPEB 1.02
  • 18th February, 2008 - 19th March, 2008:

  • Monday 4 PM - 5 PM, MPEB 1.02
  • Wednesday 10 AM - 11 AM, MPEB 1.02
  • Thursday noon - 1 PM, MPEB 1.02

  • Mailing Lists

  • Announcements about the class (readings, courseworks, lecture times) will be sent to these mailing lists. Students are responsible for ensuring they are registered on the list; the instructors do not manage them. To join a class mailing list, follow these instructions.


    Texts

  • Saltzer, Jerome and Kaashoek, Frans, Principles of Computer System Design, MIT EECS (not yet published), 2006.
    N.B. that all portions of this text assigned will be distributed in hardcopy form in lecture at the start of the second week of the term.
  • Peterson, Larry and Davie, Bruce, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 3rd Edition, Morgan-Kaufmann, 2003.

  • Detailed Course Calendar

    Reading assignments appear in the calendar below on the day when their content will be covered in lecture. For this reason, students must complete the assigned readings before lecture.

    Readings are drawn mostly from the two required texts: Saltzer and Kaashoek ("S & K") and Peterson and Davie ("P & D"). There are also a few research papers that are assigned reading; you will find links to electronic copies of these papers from the calendar. As with the readings from the required texts, students must print and read these research papers as preparation for the lecture for which they are assigned.

    7th January - 7th February (Soren Sorensen):

    Lecture Notes and Coursework 1 here.

    18th February - 19th March (Brad Karp):

    Monday Wednesday Thursday

    18th Feb

    Physical and Link Layers

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    20th Feb

    End-to-End Arguments

    Pre-Reading: End-to-End Arguments in System Design

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    21st Feb

    Multi-hop networks

    Pre-Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section A

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    25th Feb

    Reliable Transport Introduction

    Pre-Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section E

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    27th Feb

    Reliable Transport (TCP I)

    Reading: P & D, 5.1 and 5.2, only through and including 5.2.6

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    28th Feb

    Congestion Control (TCP II)

    Pre-Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section F

    Pre-Reading: Congestion Avoidance and Control

    Lecture Notes: (continuation of 27th Feb slides)

    3rd Mar

    Congestion Control, continued (TCP III)

    Reading: P & D 6.3

    Lecture Notes: (continuation of 27th Feb slides)

    5th Mar

    Intra-domain Routing: Introduction

    Pre-Reading: P & D 4.2, only through and including 4.2.1

    Pre-Reading: P & D 4.3, only through and including 4.3.2

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    6th Mar

    Intra-Domain Routing: Distance Vector

    Intra-Domain Routing: Distance Vector Pathologies

    Pre-Reading: P & D 4.2.2

    Lecture Notes: (continuation of 5th Mar slides)

    10th Mar

    Intra-Domain Routing: Link State

    Pre-Reading: P & D 4.2.3 - 4.2.4

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    12th Mar

    Intra-Domain Routing: Link State (cont'd)

    Lecture Notes: (continuation of 10th Mar slides)

    13th Mar

    Inter-Domain Routing: BGP

    Pre-Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section D

    Pre-Reading: P & D, 4.3.3

    Pre-Reading: Balakrishnan, Lecture 4 Notes

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    Coursework 2 handed out:
    Implementing a Simple Distance-Vector Router
    Due 12 noon, Friday, 28th March

    17th Mar

    Inter-Domain Routing: BGP (cont'd)

    Lecture Notes: (continuation of 13th Mar slides)

    19th Mar

    Wireless Networks: 802.11 MAC

    Reading: P & D 2.8, only through and including 2.8.2

    Lecture Notes: ppt

    20th Mar

    No lecture! (Easter Closure)