Course content

In the study of protocols, we start with application level protocols enabling students to start with more familiar paradigms in the context of applications that we use regularly. Moving to lower layers later on, we have the possibility to gradually uncover network services, their functionality and the ease/difficulty for achieving them.

Topics covered include: networking applications, content distribution, HTTP, SMTP, TCP, UDP, performance and congestion analysis, IP, switching, routing, mobile IP, local area networks, multiple access protocols (IEEE 802.X and others), wireless networks, bridges, physical media, error-detection and correction, and network security.

Course literature and other resources

The links to the resources on this page were verified on January 16, 2015. Let us know if you find some of them broken!

The lecture slides used in classes are available here.

Text book

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 6th ed., James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross

Slides from last year's classes are available here. Please bear in mind that the notes are not provided to replace the need to read from the book or attend the lectures. Acknowledgement: Many of the slides are adaptations of the slides available for instructors via the web-page of the main textbook. Source material : copyright J.F Kurose and K.W. Ross, All Rights Reserved

Reading list for the main textbook:

Careful	Quick
4/e,5/e,6/e: 1.3, 1.4, 1.5	4/e,5/e,6/e: the rest
4/e,5/e,6/e: 2.2, 2.4-2.5, 4/e,5/e: 2.7-2.9, 6/e: 2.7-2.8	4/e,5/e,6/e: 2.1, 2.3, 2.6
4/e,5/e,6/e: 3.1, 3.2, 3.4-3.7	4/e,5/e,6/e: 3.3
4/e,5/e,6/e: 4.1-4.6	4/e,5/e,6/e: 4.7
4/e,5/e: 5.1-5.6, 5.8; 6/e: 5.1-5.6	4/e,5/e: 5.7
4/e,5/e,6/e: 6.1-6.6, 6.8	4/e,5/e,6/e: 6.7
4/e,5/e: 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5, soft-state-related parts from 7.6; 7/e 7.1-7.3, 7.5	4/e,5/e,6/e: the rest
(updated March 2015) 6/e: 8.1-8.8	6/e: 8.9

There may also be some supplementary and invited lectures/tutorials emphasizing on special topics. If there extra notes, there will be advice via this page on how to get them.

Review questions from the book, useful for summary study

Chapter 1: 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28
Chapter 2: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 22, 23, 24
Chapter 3: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Chapter 4: 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 23, 27, 28
Chapter 5: 1, 2, 4, 8, 13, 15
Chapter 6: 2, 5, 7, 9, 16, 17
Chapter 7: R: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 12, 14, 15, 18
Chapter 8: 2, 3, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 21, 24

Other books that the students may find useful (available at Chalmers Library) include:

• Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, by L. Peterson and B. Davie, Morgan Kaufman;
• Computer and Network Organization: An Introduction, by Maarten van Steen and Henk Sips, Prentice Hall (very good introductory book for non-CSE students!);
• Data and Computer Communications, by W. Stallings, Prentice Hall;
• Computer Networks, by Andrew Tanenbaum, Prentice-Hall.

Interesting Pointers

• Searchable Archive of Request for Comments (RFCs);<
• The Internet Engineering Task Force
• The World Wide Web Consortium
• The IP/MPLS (ATM) forum
• The history of computing (including the history of networking)
• Computer Science Student Support Page, by William Stallings
• Introduction to Probability (C.M. Grinstead, J.L. Snell)
• Eric Weisstein's world of Mathematics (Wolfram's MathWorld)
• ACM Digital Library: electronic access to publications via Chalmers Libraries
• IEEE and IEEE Xplore: electronic access to publications via Chalmers Libraries
• Springer Verlag resources in Computer Science and LNCS: electronic access to publications via Chalmers Libraries
• CiteSeer Scientific Literature Digital Library