Below follows a day-by-day calendar for the class, including reading assignments, lecture topics, courseworks, and the mid-term exam. Lecture notes will be posted immediately after each lecture.
The lecture on a given day assumes that students will have completed any reading assignment marked Pre-Reading (shown in the same day on the calendar) before lecture. Note that the reading assignments in P & D are from the fifth edition (5/e) of the text unless otherwise mentioned.
N.B. that all assigned readings are examinable.
| Tuesday | Thursday |
|---|---|
|
1st Oct Introduction to Networking and Network Architecture (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 1 up to and including Section 1.3 Lecture Notes: pdf |
3rd Oct Multi-hop Networks and End-to-End Arguments (BK) Pre-Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section 7.1 Pre-Reading: End-to-End Arguments in System Design Lecture Notes: pdf |
|
8th Oct Controlling Errors (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 2.4 |
10th Oct Medium Access Control: CDMA, ALOHA, and Ethernet (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 2.6 Pre-Reading: Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks |
|
15th Oct Wireless Networks: 802.11 MAC (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 2, Section 2.7, only through and including 2.7.1 Lecture Notes: pdf Optional Python programming exercise: TubeLab |
17th Oct Primitives for Achieving Reliability (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 2.5 Coursework 1 out (pdf); due 4:05 PM 24th October |
|
22nd Oct Introduction to Internetworking (KJ) Reading: P & D, §§3.2, 4.1 (5/e); §§4.1, 4.3 (4/e) |
24th Oct Internetworking II: Virtual Networks, MPLS, and Traffic Engineering (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 4.3 (5/e), Section 4.5 (4/e) The Domain Name System (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 9.3.1 (5/e), Section 9.1.3 (4/e) Pre-Reading: S & K, DNS case study (pdf, UCL only) Coursework 1 due Coursework 2 out (pdf, software distribution); due 4:05 PM Friday 15th November Coursework 2 Introduction slides: pdf |
|
29th Oct Reliable Transport and TCP Introduction (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 5, Section 5.2 Optional Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section 7.5 Lecture Notes: pdf |
31st Oct TCP and Congestion Control (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 6, Section 6.3 Pre-Reading: Congestion Avoidance and Control Optional Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section 7.6 Lecture Notes: pdf Coursework 3 out: TCP problem set (pdf); due 4:05 PM 19th November |
|
5th Nov Reading week; no lecture today! |
7th Nov Reading week; no lecture today! |
|
12th Nov Forwarding and Addressing in the Link Layer (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, §3.1 (5/e); §§3.1, 3.2 (4/e) Pre-Reading: Excerpt from Perlman: Interconnections (pdf, UCL only) |
14th Nov Midterm exam (first hour) Coursework 2 due tomorrow, Friday 15th Nov, 4:05 PM |
|
19th Nov Intra-Domain Routing: Introduction and Distance-Vector (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 3, Section 3.3, only through end of 3.3.2 Lecture Notes: pdf Coursework 3 due Coursework 4 out: DV Routing; (pdf) due 4:05 PM 3rd December Coursework 4 Introduction slides: pdf |
21st Nov No lecture today! |
|
26th Nov Inside Internet Routers (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 3.4 Pre-Reading: Small Forwarding Tables for Fast Routing Lookups |
28th Nov Content Delivery on the Web: Compression, HTTP, and CDNs (KJ) Pre-Reading: P & D, Section 9.4.3 Lecture Notes: pdf |
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3rd Dec Intra-Domain Routing: Link-State (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 3, Section 3.3.3 Lecture Notes: pdf Coursework 4 due |
5th Dec Inter-Domain Routing: BGP (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 4, Section 4.1.2 Pre-Reading: Balakrishnan, Lecture 4 Notes Optional Reading: S & K, Chapter 7, Section 7.4 Lecture Notes: pdf |
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10th Dec Inter-Domain Routing: BGP (cont'd) (BK) Lecture Notes: pdf |
12th Dec Security: Firewalls, Worms, and IDSes (BK) Pre-Reading: P & D, Chapter 8, Section 8.5 Lecture Notes: pdf |