Simon S. Lam

CS 356 Lecture Slides and Reading Assignments

Textbook: J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach, 7th edition, Addison Wesley, 2017 (online resources website). I  have requested that this book be put on 2-hour reserve in the PCL library.  The hard copy is well over $100.  The online book is about half price.

Lecture Slides (download):  Lecture slides provided herein are to be used for educational purposes only. Please respect the intellectual property rights of their authors and do not use them for commercial profit. Most slides, more than 90%, are courtesy of Kurose and Ross (most have been revised by S.S. Lam). The balance of the slides was created by S.S. Lam from a variety of sources.  Note:  I have likely included more slides than I will cover in lectures. Some slides will be skipped in lectures.  On the other hand, there are lecture materials that appear in the slides only but not in the textbook, and you should know them in exams.

(The following guide is subject to revision.  Before each exam, read the following again for the most up-to-date instructions.)

1. Computer Networks and the Internet

Read entire chapter 1. Note that Chapter 1 lecture slides contain materials on performance analysis not in the text.  Sections 1.6 and 1.7, for you to read on your own, will not be in exam.

2. Application Layer

Read entire chapter 2.  The material on BitTorrent (pages 144-146) will not be in exam. Details of Case Studies in subsection 2.6.4 will not be in the exam. For Section 2.7, you need to understand the basics and principles of TCP and UDP sockets as presented in class; there will not be any question on Python code in exam. 

3. Transport Layer

Read entire chapter 3, with some exceptions:

My coverage of the material in Section 3.4 is different from your text. More specifically, I use notation and diagrams different from those used by Kurose and Ross to explain the same concepts and ideas.  Also, I have performance analysis material not in the text. You should follow the notation and math in Lecture slides instead of the text.

(Exam 2 covers the following chapters)

4. Network Layer: Data Plane

Read entire chapter of your text, with the following allowance:

• Materials in subsections 4.2.2 - 4.2.5 will not be in exam.

5. Network Layer: Control Plane

Read entire chapter of your text, with the following allowances:

• In subsection 5.2.1, Dijkstra's algorithm is skipped in lecture since you should have learned it in a lower-level CS class. 
• Dijkstra's algorithm will not be in exam but you should understand Link-State broadcast.
• Details of  OSPF protocol in pages 393-394 will not be in exam.
• IP-Anycast in subsection 5.4.4 will be skipped.
• Details on SDN Controller Plane in subsections 5.5.2-5.5.4 will be skipped
• Section 5.7 on Network Management and SNMP will be skipped.

6. Link Layer and Local Area Networks

Read entire chapter of your text, with the following allowances:

• Subsection 6.3.4 on DOCSIS will not be in exam.
• Section 6.6 on Data Center Networking covers an important topic - it is about the "cloud" in cloud computing.  Since I covered the topic at a high level in class, it will be skipped in the exam.  I do recommend strongly that you read the entire section for your own good.
• Section 6.7 is a review to help you see how the protocols you have learned so far work together; it will not be covered in class but you should download the PowerPoint file from Lecture Slides (download) and follow the animation steps.

7. Wireless and Mobile Networks

Read Chapter 7 from the beginning through the end of subsection 7.3.2 (page 542), except subsection 7.2.1 on CDMA, which is not covered in class and will not be in the exam. Also read subsection 7.3.4 (pages 546 and 547) on mobility in the same IP subnet.