COMPUTER NETWORKS M - Z

Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Salvatore Antonio RICCOBENE

Expected Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding: the aim of the course is to acquire base knowledge that allow the student to understand theoretical and phisical mechanisms which constite the base for a communication system; in detail, the student will acquire knowledge of main computer networks protocols.

Applying knowledge and understanding: student will acquire knowledge usefull to configure a computer network of middle size, choosing the right devices , cabling the the net, optimizing the resource available. For this reason, in a part of the course will be presented practical aspects of computer network configuration.

Making judjements: through real examples of errors derived by wrong configurations, the student will be able to discover solutions for problems that he can find during his work as a network administrator.

Communication skills: student will acquire base communication skills using technical language in the field of computer network and information systems.

Learning skills: the course provides, to the student, teoretical and pratical methodologies in order to deal with new problems that can rise during his work activity.

Course Structure

Classroom lessons

Laboratory lessons

Required Prerequisites

Fundamentals on C and C++ programming
Base knowledge on computer architecture
Base knowledge on Operating Systems

Attendance of Lessons

Take part to lessons is mandatory

Detailed Course Content

Network archetcures
The OSI stack. Layers in TCP/IP
Communication channels
The Data Link Layer
Error discovery and correction
The MAC sublayer
IEEE 802.3
The Network layer
Routing algorithms
The IPv4 protocol
The IPv6 protocol
The transoprt layer
UDP and TCP
Flow and congestion control
The application layer
HTTP, FTP, SMTP, DNS
Handling network intreface in linux hosts
Socket Programming

Textbook Information

J.F. Kurose - K. W. Ross: Computer networking: a top down approach
D.E. Comer: Internetworking with TCP/IP - vol.1
A. Tanenbaum: Computer networks

Course Planning

	Subjects	Text References
1	Computer networks: introduction	Kurose Ross
2	The application layer	Kurose Ross
3	The transport layer	Kurose Ross
4	UDP connections	Kurose Ross
5	Affordable Data transfer	Kurose Ross
6	The TCP protocol	Kurose Ross
7	TCP congestion control	Kurose Ross
8	The network layer	Kurose Ross
9	IPv4	Kurose Ross
10	IPv6	Kurose Ross
11	Routing protocols	Kurose Ross
12	Data Link Layer	Kurose Ross
13	Error handling	Kurose Ross
14	Ethernet	Kurose Ross
15	VLan	Kurose Ross
16	Creation and configuration of a linux host in a virtual environment
17	Configuration of network interfaces under UNIX
18	Router configuration in a VM

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

The final exam is divided into three parts:

a written test
an oral test
a laboratory test

Normally, the written test starts at 9:00 AM, followed by, during the same day, the oral test. The laboratory test occurs in next days

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

Interlan and intralan addressing
Optional headers in IPv6
Routing protocol: DV
Routing protocol: LSR
Congestion control in TCP
Opening and closing TCP connections
Error discovery
DLL addressing
IEEE802.3
Application layer protocols

Degree Course in

Computer Science