CS 158A INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER NETWORKS

Dept of Computer Science, San Jose State University, Spring 2008

 

Instructor: Dr. Melody Moh

 

                                                              

CS 158A-01, SEM 27673

Office: MH 411
Office Hours: Tue & Thu 11:45-12:45, 13:15-14:20, & by appointments

Tel. (408) 924-5088 Fax. (408) 924-5080

Email: moh ‘AT’ cs.sjsu.edu                                  URL: http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~melody

 

(I)                COURSE INFORMATION

 

PREREQUISITE:

            CS 146 and CS 147 (or equivalent) and instructor consent

 

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

  • L. Peterson and B. Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 4th Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 2007, ISBN 0-12-370548-7 URL: http://books.elsevier.com/us/mk/us/subindex.asp?isbn=9780123705488

 

REFERENCES

  • James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 4th edition, Addison Wesley, 2007.
  • A. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 4th Edition, Prentice-Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002, ISBN 0-13-066102-3.
  • Douglas E. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets with Internet Applications, 4th ed., Prentice Hall, 2004.

 

DESCRIPTION

  • Foundation
  • Data link networks and MAC
  • Packet switching (LAN and ATM)
  • Internetworking (IP, routing, global Internet, multicast)
  • End-to-end protocols (UDP and TCP)
  • Congestion control and resource allocation
  • Network security
  • Advanced topics (as time permits): Topics in advanced network technology: End-to-end data (Data presentation and compression), Network applications, Internet QoS, Voice over IP, etc.

 

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

·         Understand the above covered topics through completion of homework, quizzes, and examinations.

·         Successfully complete individual project, including the use networking tools such as telnet, ping, traceroute, bing, and Wiresharks to evaluate simple network characteristics.

·         Work in a team to complete group projects, including independent research and network software programming.

·         Successfully completed four or more hands-on Cisco networking laboratory sessions.

 

ASSIGNMENTS

  • HW:     Weekly homework assignments and several in-class quizzes, and four or more

Cisco Lab sessions - http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/ciscolab/

  • PROJ: A group research, programming term-project will be broken up into several parts and phases, and span the entire semester

EXAMS

Two mid-term exams (M1 and M2) scheduled approximately at the end of 6th and 11th week, and a final exam (FIN).

 

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Please check the course web page for continual updates: http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~melody/CS158A.html

 

GRADING SYSTEM

HW - 15%, PROJ- 40%, M1 - 15%, M2 - 15%, FIN - 15%.

 

Percentage

Grade

94 & above

A

90 - 93

A-

87 - 89

B+

83 - 86

B

80 - 82

B-

77 - 79

C+

73 - 76

C

70 - 71

C-

60 - 69

D

59 and below

F

 

OTHER NOTES

  • The pre-requisites to this course (CS 146, CS 147, and instructor’s consent) will be monitored, and the instructor is authorized to drop students at any time should it be determined that NOT all prerequisites have been met.
  • Students are responsible for all materials distributed and/or discussed in class.
  • Most handouts are available on the web; hard copy distribution will be kept minimized.
  • Attendance is crucial to doing well on assignments and examinations.
  • Office hours are on a 90% basis; they may be rescheduled or canceled due to conflicting department/university meetings.
  • Cheating will not be tolerable; a ZERO will be given to any cheated assignment/exam, and will be reported to the university.

 

(II)       Dept. of Computer Science - Additional Green Sheet Information Required by the University

Academic Integrity:

Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at SJSU, and the University's Academic Integrity Policy requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The policy on academic integrity can be found at http://sa.sjsu.edu/judicial_affairs/.

Further Information:

·  If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations register with the SJSU Disability Resource Center to establish a record of their disability.

·  Please familiarize yourself with SJSU policies and procedures:

·  http://info.sjsu.edu/static/soc-spring/soc-spring.html

·  http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html

Particularly the add/drop policy. It is your responsibility to know and observe these policies. However, if there is something about a policy that you don't understand, please feel free to ask! You can also find answers to many questions at the Student Advising Center. Note that for the Spring, 2008 semester the last day to drop without consequence is Monday, February 4, and the last day to add is Monday, February 11. After these dates it becomes very difficult to drop or add a class, so be sure you are in good shape before these dates arrive!