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20-770: Communications and Networking

Course Syllabus

Gregory Kesden

Table of Contents

Class Meetings

Course Description

Text
Instructor
Teaching Assistant 
Assignments

Policy on Collaboration
Policy on Late Work

Class Meetings

Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30 – 5:20, Wean Hall 5409

 

Course Description

Principles underlying the interconnection of large numbers of computers. Transmission technologies: Ethernet, optical fiber, gigabit networks, cellular transmission, infrared.   Intranets, internets. Reliable message passing, interoperability.  Network technologies: servers, clients, access control.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

·        understand the hardware and interface components of a computerized communications network

Text

The textbook for the course is Computer Networks, 3ed by Andrew Tannenbaum, published by Prentice Hall in1996

Additional reading assignments may also be handed out in class during the semester.

Instructor

Gregory Kesden

·        Email: gkesden+@cs.cmu.edu,

·        URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~gkesden

·        Office: WeH 8020

·        Office Phone: 268-1590

·        Home Phone: 687-6198

·        Office Hours: 3:30-4:30 Mondays and Wednesdays

Please note:

Office hours are times that I do my best to reserve exclusively for meeting with students, but I am often available at times other than office hours. During a typical day I might be available earlier, upon returning from lunch, and also for some amount of time later in the evening, upon returning after dinner – I don’t promise to be available outside of office hours, but I do try. You are welcome to stop in any time that my door is open. If you are having difficulty meeting with me, please feel free to make an appointment.

Some students have found it useful to finger me at my UNIX workstation, gigo.sp.cs.cmu.edu, or the departmental cycle server ux8.sp.cs.cmu.edu. If I have a reasonably short idle time on either machine and I’m logged in locally or from my Windows box fubar.sp.cs.cmu.edu, chances are that I’m in my office.

Please note that my home phone number is published is this syllabus, as well as in many other places. If something comes up that is time sensitive and I am otherwise unavailable, you are welcome to try me at home.

I am generally not available via zephyr.

Teaching Assistant

Eric Burns

 

Assignments

 

Unless otherwise indicated, homework assignments are individual assignments. Although each student should do his/her own homework, students are certainly encouraged to discuss the course material related to the homework to develop a better understanding.

 

Homework assignments will be assigned approximately every two weeks and will be live for about 1 week each.

 

 

 

Exam 1: Physical and Link (including MAC)

Exam 2: Network

Final: Transport and Cumulative

 

Since this is my first time teaching this course, and the audience is more diverse than a typical computer science course, I want to keep the exam schedule a little flexible.

I’ll give you at least one week’s notice of the first two exams. The final exam will be scheduled by the University.

 

Policy on Collaboration (Unless otherwise indicated)

For homework assignments, students are encouraged to talk to each other, to the course staff, or to anyone else about the assignments. This assistance, though, is limited to the discussion of the problem and perhaps sketching of general approaches to a solution. Each student must develop his or her own solutions to the homework. Consulting another student's solution is prohibited, and submitted solutions may not be copied from any source. Violations of this policy may be treated as academic dishonesty pursuant to the University regulations.

 

If you question the legality of any type of collaboration or consultation, please ask. If you are in a real bind, do what feels right and discuss the issue with one of us as soon as is possible. If you discuss the issue with us before you turn in your solution or document it as part of your solution, it will not be considered academic dishonesty or any other crime of moral turpitude (of course, it might not qualify for full credit, either).
 

Policy on Late Work

 

Each student may grant himself or herself an extension on any homework assignment – but only four (4) days worth of extensions may be granted to any student during the course of the semester under this policy.

 

Please also understand that the use of extensions may delay the grading of your assignment. This isn’t intended as a punishment, it is just the natural consequence of the way the grading process works. We’ll do our best to be timely – but once extensions are injected into the system, this can become difficult.

 

I encourage you to reserve extensions for the inevitable – minor illnesses, deaths in the family, conferences, University trips, bad karma, &c. But you are free to use them for any reason that you’d like – but remember you only have four days worth of extensions!

 

To grant yourself an extension, please send an e-mail to both of us that includes the reason for the extension and the number of days of the extension. Up to four days of extensions will be granted, regardless of the reasons, but we do require the reasons so that we understand the factors influencing the course. This e-mail must be sent on or before the assignment due.

 

This system grants you a great deal of flexibility – and also responsibility. Feel free to consult with us about your situation – but ultimately the decisions are yours. Extensions beyond the four days available under this policy will only be granted for extremely unusual, extremely unforeseeable, and/or extremely incapacitating circumstances. It is likely that we would require significant evidence of the circumstance and would consult with administrators and/or academic advisors before granting any further extensions. Further extensions, if granted, may involve a substantial late penalty.