TSYS School of Computer Science @ Columbus State University

Course Syllabus: CPSC 5157G (Online)- Computer Networks

Summer 2011

Instructor Information:

Radhouane Chouchane

Office: Center for Commerce and Technology, Room 430

Phone: (706) 568-5376

Email:

Homepage:

Office Hours: TWR 12:30 pm - 4:00 pm

(also via email and by appointment)

Course Title: CPSC 5157G- Computer Networks

Official Course Description:

Local area networks, wide area networks, and internets. Protocols and the ISO Open Systems Interconnect reference model. Design, analysis, and performance evaluation. Emphasis on data link, network, and transport protocols.

Prerequisites: CPSC 2108 (Data Structures) with a grade of C or better.

Required Textbook:

/ Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach 5th Ed.(Hardcover)
By James Kurose and Keith Ross
Publisher: Pearson
ISBN: 0-13-607967-9

Supplementary Materials:

  • “Computer Networks and Internets,” By Douglas Comer. ISBN: 0131433512
  • Your own class notes
  • Handouts and reading materials posted on the course's web site
  • Links to protocol simulators and other network simulators posted on the course's web site.
  • A copy of the Wireshark network sniffing tool (
  • Websites containing material on network security, e.g.,

Course Objectives:

  1. Students will demonstrate understanding of basic networking concepts.
  2. Students will demonstrate understanding of how wide area networks and internets are designed and built, and the basics of how communication over a WAN or an internet takes place.
  3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of network, data link, and transport protocols, as well as the OSI and the TCP/IP reference models.
  4. Students will demonstrate knowledge of network performance and security issues.
  5. Students will be able to do literature searches on modern issues in networking and report their findings in a professionally written research paper.

Major Topics:

  1. Uses of Computer Networks
  2. Network Hardware and Network Software
  3. Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks, Internets
  4. Wireless Networks
  5. The OSI and the TCP/IP Reference Models
  6. Transport Protocols (UDP and TCP)
  7. Network Performance Issues, Routing and Congestion Control Algorithms
  8. Network Security Issues: Authentication

Instructional Methods and Techniques:

  1. Students are expected to take part in threaded discussions.
  2. Students must have access to a networked computer to complete their assignments.
  3. Students must regularly visit the course website for new assignments, reading materials and announcements.
  4. Students will perform a number of hand-on exercises to reinforce their understanding of the material.

Assignments for Course:

  1. Readings from the textbook and the instructor's notes on the course's website
  2. Readings from popular computing periodicals
  3. Online research and reporting of findings
  4. Contributing to online discussions
  5. Homework assignments that may involve working with networking tools
  6. Writing a research paper

Assessment Criteria:

Your performance will be evaluated using several homework assignments that may include hands-on activities, your timely contributions to threaded online discussions, a final exam, and a research paper. The final exam will be closed-books, closed-notes.

The final exam will be proctored. Information about testing centers is available at Students must locate a (preferably professional) proctor to administer their final exam. A supervisor at work or a public library official may also serve as a proctor. Students may also take their exam at home, with the proctorU.com service as their proctor. Students must contact the instructor no later than July 02, to get the instructor's approval for their chosen proctor. The name and full contact information of the proctor, as well as the proctor's affiliation must be communicated to the instructor no later than July 02.

Every other week or so, a discussion topic will be posted by the instructor. A minimum of two high-qualitytimely contributions to the online discussion group will be required for each discussion topic. A high-quality, timely contribution to the online discussion group is one that addresses one of the issues raised by the discussion topic, or one raised by another student in relation to the topic. Contributions such as “I agree” are not considered high-quality and will not get credit. Students are expected to interact in a professional and courteous manner. No issues that are not related to Operating Systems are to be brought up on the board. No vulgarities, personal attacks, or offensive language of any sort will be allowed. Contributions made on the same calendar day will count as one contribution. Ideally, students should make their first contribution on a given day of the week, and make another contribution at least 24 hours after the first contribution is made, but before the deadline for the topic.

Before they start working on their paper, students must get approval from the instructor for their research topic. Guidelines on writing a scientific research paper will be available on the course website. Students must have a topic approved and start working on their manuscripts no later than 11:59 pm EST, July 02, 2011.

Assessment criteria will be weighted as follows.

Assignments 35%; One final exam30%

Discussions 10%; Research paper 25%

Letter grades will be assigned as follows: A (90%-100%); B (80%-89%); C (70%-79%); D (60%-69%); F (0%-59%)

Tentative Schedule (Subject to change as we progress through the course)

Date / Topic / Work Due
Week 1 / Computer Networks and Internets
Week 2 / Application Layer / Lab 1 (tentative)
Week 3 / Transport Layer / Lab 2 (tentative)
Research Topic
Week 4 / Network Layer / Lab 3 (tentative)
Week 5 / Link Layer and LANs / Lab 4 (tentative)
Week 6 / Wireless and Mobile Networks / Lab 5 (tentative)
Research Paper
Week 7 / Review for the Final Exam / Final Exam: TBA

General Policies:

No make-up exams will be given, students must be sure to complete their final exam by its deadline. Unless they are due a documented emergency reported to the instructor in a timely fashion, a grade of 0 will be automatically assigned for missed exams.

Students are responsible for keeping pace with the progress of the course. Should any concerns about the course’s contents be addressed, students should immediately consult with the instructor by email or during office hours. In addition to regularly reading from the text book, students must visit the course’s website at least once a day for recent updates and announcements. Students must regularly check both their CSU and their CougarVIEW email accounts for messages from the instructor. Announcements made on CougarVIEW, and that are at least 24 hours old, will be assumed to have been read by their recipient(s). “I didn't know” is not excuse for not submitting an assignment in time.
Unless untimely submission of an assignment is due to a documented emergency reported to the instructor before the day on which the assignment is due, a penalty of 5% per day will be incurred for late assignments. Assignments submitted more than 3 days after their due date will be considered missed and will receive a grade of 0.

Academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, activities such as cheating and plagiarism. It is a basis for disciplinary action. Collaboration is not permitted on assignments or exams/quizzes in this course. Any work turned in for individual credit must be entirely the work of the student submitting it. Students may share ideas but submitting identical answers to any one assignment question will be considered cheating.
Students may discuss course material and help one another with debugging, however, the instructor expects any work that a student hands in for a grade to be the student's own. Written and programming assignments may not contain sections that have been imported verbatim from an outside source, be it online (such as a web page) or offline (such as a book or an article). The penalty for the first occurrence of this type of academic dishonesty is a zero grade on the assignment; the penalty for the second occurrence is a failing grade for the course.
A simple way to avoid inadvertent plagiarism is to talk about the assignments, but students may not read each other's work or write solutions together. Students should consider keeping scratch paper and old versions of assignments until after the assignment has been graded and returned to them. Should students have any questions about this, they must see/contact the instructor immediately.
For assignments, access to notes, books and other publications is allowed. Stealing, giving or receiving any code, diagrams, drawings, texts or designs from another person (CSU or non-CSU) is not allowed. Having access to another person’s work on the system or giving access to one's work to another person is not allowed. It is the student's responsibility to keep her/his work confidential.
No cheating in any form will be tolerated. The penalty for the first occurrence of academic dishonesty is a zero grade on the assignment or exam/quiz; the penalty for the second occurrence is a failing grade for the course. For closed-books exams/quizzes, access to any type of written material or discussion of any kind (except with me) is not allowed. (

CSU ADA Statement

If you have a documented disability as described by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 933-112 Section 504) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and would like to request academic and/or physical accommodations please contact Joy Norman at the Office of Disability Services in the Center for Academic Support and Student Retention, Tucker Hall (706) 568-2330, as soon as possible. Course requirements will not be waived but reasonable accommodations may be provided as appropriate.