582202 Introduction to Data Communication (4 cr)

Course description

Position in Curriculum

Undergraduate course in Computer Science. Obligatory.

There are no formal prerequisites for this course in curriculum. Intead, the course has been positioned to period IV, and it is assumed that students have basic knowledge about the operating system interfaces and programming. The course following this course in curriculum is 582498 Internet protokollat (Internet Protocols).

Objectives

The course is an introduction to the network technologies and data communication services. The goal is to understand the structure of the Internet and the functionality of the basic Internet protocols. The main focus is on the hierarchical TCP/IP protocol stack.

How to Pass this Course

You have two ways to pass this course

• by doing work in small group sessions and taking the course exam right after the lectures
• or by passing the separate examination.

The course is lectured every Spring semester (period IV). The lecture course involves

• 24 hours of lectures (4 hours per week)
• 5 x 2 hours of small group sessions (once a week) and
• a course exam (2 1/2 hours).

Lessons and the small group sessions are by default in finnish, but an english small group session could be organized on demand.

Registration

You can register to the course by signing into one of small groups. You don't need to register separately in the course examination. See details from page "Registering for Courses and Exams"

If you do this course by the separate examination, you have to register to the exam at least one week before the examination, and please send e-mail to the tentator for questions in english.

Course Materials

The course follows the text book

Kurose J.F., Ross K.W.: Computer Networking, A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (3rd Edition), Addison-Wesley, 2005.

The course web-pages can be found from http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/kurssit/aine/582202/.

The Usenet newsgroup for this course is hy.opiskelu.tktl.tili. Although the discussion is carried mainly in finnish, you are still encouraged to write yours in english.

There exists numerous other books that can be used in addition to our course book, for example,

• Forouzan, Data Communications and Networking, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill,2004.
• Peterson & Davie, Computer Networks A Systems Approach, 3rd ed., Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.
• Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 4th ed., Pearson Education, 2003.

Contents

The main headlines from the course book (~360 pages):

1. Chapter 1: Computer Networks and the Internet
   What is the Internet, The Network Core, The Network Edge, Access Networks and Physical Media, Delay and Loss in Packet-Switched Networks, Protocol Layers and Their Service Models
2. Chapter 2: Application Layer
   Principles of Network Applications, The Web and HTTP, File Transfer: FTP, Electronic Mail in the Internet, DNS - The Internet's Directory Service, P2P File Sharing, Socket Programming
3. Chapter 3 (not included: 3.6, 3.7.2): Transport Layer
   Introduction and Transport-Layer Services, Multiplexing and Demultiplexing, Connectionless transport: UDP, Principles of Reliable Data Transfer, Connection-Oriented Transport: TCP, TCP Congestion Control
4. Chapter 4.1-4.5 (not included: 4.2, 4.4.4): Network Layer
   Introduction, What's Inside a Router?, The Internet Protocol (IP): Forwarding and Addressing in the Internet, Routing Algorithms (Link State Routing, Distande Vector Routing, Hierarchical Routing)
5. Chapter 5.1-5.6: Link Layer and Local Area Networks
   Link Layer: Introduction and Services, Error-Detection and -Correction Techniques, Multiple Access Protocols, Link-layer Addressing (MAC, ARP, DHCP), Ethernet (Frame structure, CSMA/CD), Interconnections: Hubs and Switches)
6. Chapter 8.1, 8.6-8.7: Security in Computer Networks
   What is Network Security, Attacks and Countermeasures, Access Control: Firewalls

---

28.11.2005, Auvo Häkkinen