Data Networks, ICS 451

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Instructor: Edo Biagioni

Office is in POST 311B, telephone (808)956-3891, e-mail esb@hawaii.edu. Office hours are:

Monday and Wednesday 11am-12noon and Thursday 2:30-3:00 in my office, POST 311B, phone 956-3891. If I have to travel or otherwise miss a scheduled office hour, I will send mail to the mailing list. There are no office hours on holidays.
I will do my best to reply to email within 24 hours except on Fridays, weekends, and holidays.
Send me email or call me to arrange an appointment. If you send email, please suggest a time to meet on each of at least two different dates.
If you can find me in my office, ask me if I am busy, and I will let you know if I am available to talk at that time.

Teaching Assistant: Yihua Xie

Office is in POST 303-1. E-mail yihua@hawaii.edu. Office hours are (the following information will probably change) in POST 318B:

Mon 10:30-11:30p
Tue 1:30-2:30p
Fri 10:00-12:00a

Goals

In this course, students will:

learn about computer networking, focusing on the fundamental design principles of computer networks and protocols.
study networks of practical importance, including the Internet, TCP/IP, and ATM.
learn to write computer programs to work with the network, specifically implementing clients, servers, and protocols.

Organization

Lectures are Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30-2:45 in POST 126.

This course has homework assignments, projects, quizzes, exams, and reviews. The homeworks are not graded, though you may turn them in if you wish to have them checked or if you have questions. The reviews and quizzes are credit/no credit.

All students are required to join the course mailing list -- to join, send email to esb@hawaii.edu. Be sure to include both your name and your email address (which must end in @hawaii.edu), and to state that you wish to join (or be removed from) the ICS 451 mailing list -- this last is important, since I manage multiple mailing lists. Please also include the password information required for the quizzes. Only registered students will be allowed to join. See here if you need help accessing your email on your hawaii.edu account.

I send email to the mailing list with announcements and such. The mailing list may also be used for class-wide discussion on topics relevant to the course. You should feel free to initiate such discussion.

Grades are assigned based on your performance on:

three major projects, each worth 20% of the grade (total 60%)
2 exams and a final, each worth 10% of the grade (total 30%)
A number of on-line quizzes. You must master all the quizzes in order to get a passing grade (C or better) in the course.
2 reviews of your colleagues' projects (total 10%).

A cumulative score of 90% will guarantee an A in the course, 80% a B, 65% a C, and 50% a D. Depending on the performance of the class as a whole, I may or may not grade more generously (grade on a curve).

Any homeworks will not affect the final grade, so turning them in is optional. I do, however, recommend that you do them. Participation (electronic and in class) is likewise highly recommended but does not affect your grade.

The first project must be done individually. The second and third project may be done individually or in teams of your choosing, up to a maximum of three students. For the first two projects you must use the C language, the third project may be in any language supported by uhunix2.

Projects and reviews must be turned in on time, and exams taken on schedule, with two exceptions:

prior permission of the instructor, or
hardship situations (note that lack of planning on the student's part or an overloaded class schedule do NOT count as "hardship")

Both of these require talking with the instructor, otherwise a grade of zero will be entered for the corresponding homework, review, or exam.

The textbook is "Computer Networks and Internets", by Douglas E. Comer (Prentice-Hall), third edition (2001). The textbook is available from the UH bookstore. The second edition (1999) is also acceptable, but chapter numbers must be obtained by reference to the Fall 2001 class schedule. Due to popular demand, I have also selected an optional reference book for sockets programming. This optional book should also be available from the UH bookstore, though if everyone decides to buy them, they will run out. It is most likely that these books are also stocked or can be ordered by your favorite bookstore -- shop early to be sure to get the textbook(s).

Cheating Policy: any cheating will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment or exam the first time it is detected, and a grade of F for the course for any subsequent instance. There is to be no collaboration whatsoever on homeworks or exams (you may study together, but anything you turn in, must be entirely your own intellectual contribution). This applies to the entire group in the case of group projects.