Modern Data Communications: COMPSCI 314 Semester 2, City Campus

Prerequisites	COMPSCI 210. (Students will also find some material from COMPSCI 215 and COMPSCI 220 to be helpful.)	Planning Note: Due to future adjustments to the curriculum, it is expected that COMPSCI 215 or INFOSYS 224 will be added as a prerequisite for COMPSCI 314 in 2011.
Assessment	Final Exam 70%; Test 15%; Assignments 15%  (Passes required in both practical and written work)
Lecturers	Prof Brian Carpenter (Room 587) Assoc Prof Nevil Brownlee (Room 590) Prof Clark Thomborson (Room 593)
Tutor	Habib Naderi (hnad002@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
Class Representative	Kathleen Ofrasio (kofr001@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
Time & Location	City campus, 3 lectures per week: Tue 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.,  Room Library B15 Thu 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.,  Room Library B15 Fri   9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.,  Room Engineering 1 401

Recommended Text

William A. Shay, "Understanding Data Communications and Networks," Thomson*Brooks/Cole (3rd Edition) The course is mostly based on the text; you should plan to read the sections from it that are covered in the course. Note, however, that other material (e.g. Peer to Peer) is not covered in the text – suitable web references for such material will be given in lectures.

Description and Contents

The fundamentals of data communications and computer networks, concentrating on the layered model up to and including the Transport Layer (Level 4). It includes Local Area Networks, Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) and some applications such as Email and Peer to Peer, to give an understanding of how Internet services are provided over the layered model. The course will be based on the textbook, i.e. lectures and assignments are aimed at directing students to the relevant sections of the textbook. Some sections of the textbook are not covered in the course. The Lectures page will list the sections that are intended to be covered. Expected topics include: the layered model, physical transmission techniques and coding, data security and integrity, protocols, local area networks, wide area networks, routing, TCP/IP and Internet applications.

You may look at the Archive section to see material from earlier years.

The class tutor's office is 303.595. Available by email, or from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Friday.

Brian Carpenter is glad to answer email questions. See office hours.

Nevil Brownlee is glad to answer email questions, and does not have formal office hours, preferring an open door policy, so that students can see him whenever they desire, from about 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. If the time is inconvenient he may ask you to come back later, or perhaps make an appointment.

Clark Thomborson is glad to answer email questions. See office hours.

We are unlikely to answer email from home, so do not expect responses during the evening.

All email messages must include the class "catalogue" number (314) and your student ID number. It's nice to give your name, too. Messages which do not not include this information may well be treated as spam. This applies especially to those from a non-Uni address.

The Department of Computer Science has a general policy on cheating and plagiarism, within the University policy on academic honesty. Briefly, if we detect material in assignments or projects that appears to be copied from elsewhere without due acknowledgement, we will normally give zero marks for that assignment or project. Appeals must be in writing to the Head of Department (not to the lecturer).

See exam page for more details.

Test Date: Friday 27 August, 2010

Time: 9:00 a.m. (i.e., usual lecture time)
Room(s): Engineering 1 401 (i.e., usual lecture room)

Exam Date: Thursday 28 October 2010

Time: 2:15 p.m.
Location: City

This table shows the topics expected to be covered in the lectures, together with assignment and test dates. All details are subject to change.

• The dates listed are the Monday of each week, with all assignments due on Fridays.
• While this is the general plan of the allocation of topics to each lecture, the division and allocation of material is by no means guaranteed.
• Topics may very well move slightly as the course develops.
  The numbers at the start of each lecture entry are just the sequential numbers of the lectures.
• For each topic, the textbook sections we expect to cover are shown on the Lectures page.

Week of...	Tuesday	Thursday	Friday	Assessment
19 July	1 Introduction	2 Signals	3 Codes	Ass 1 set   (Lab: wireshark)
26 July	4 Analog & Digital	5 Analog & Digital	6 Compression
2 August	7 Compression	8 Data Integrity	9 Data Integrity
9 August	10 Data Integrity	11 Encryption	12 Authentication
16 August	13 Flow Control	14 Flow Control	15 LAN: link      control	Ass 2 set   (flow control) Ass 1 due    Fri, 20 August
23 August	16 Ethernet	17 Ethernet	— Test —	TEST:  9:00 a.m.    Fri, 27 August
30 August 6 September	— Mid Semester Break —
13 September	18 Wireless,      802.11	19 Bridges	20 Switches
20 September	21 Routing	22 Routing	23 IPv4 basics,      ICMP	Ass 3 set   (switch/route) Ass 2 due   Fri, 24 September
27 September (DST starts)	24 IPv4 cont.:     DHCP, ARP,     DNS	25 IPv6	26 TCP
4 October	27 UDP, Sockets	28 TLS, SSH,      FTP, SMTP,      SNMP	29 Peer-to-peer     applications
11 October	30 HTTP,      the Web	31 Loose ends	32 Course      overview	Ass 3 due    Fri, 15 October
18 October	No lectures - just lots of time to study