This class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4:15pm in POST 127.
The textbook is "Computer Networking : Principles, Protocols and Practice", by Olivier Bonaventure, release 0.25 (October 2011). This textbook is free and can be downloaded here.
Due to popular demand, I have also selected optional reference books and links for sockets programming. These optional books are not available from the UH bookstore. It is most likely that these books are stocked or can be ordered by your favorite bookstore -- shop early to be sure to get the textbook(s).
This course has assignments, exams, and reviews. The reviews are credit/no credit.
Because your code written for assignments may be reviewed by your fellow students, it will not be treated as confidential.
All registered students will be added to the course mailing list by the instructor at the beginning of the semester, but please make sure you are on the mailing list (usually the mailing list sends a message when you are added).
Grades are assigned based on your performance on:
Grading will use the standard cutoffs of 97% (A+), 93% (A), 90% (A-), 87% (B+), 83% (B), 80% (B-), 77% (C+), 73% (C), 70% (C-), 67% (D+), 63% (D), 60% (D-). Depending on the performance of the class as a whole, I may at the end of the course decide to grade more generously (i.e. grade on a curve), but this is not likely. In grading, I will be looking for evidence of understanding of the material and evidence of your ability to do work in the field. There is no extra credit -- students must do well on the exams and assignments to do well in the course.
Assignments must be done individually if so indicated, and otherwise may be done in teams of up to three students. You must use the C programming language for all assignments unless indicated otherwise.
Assignments and reviews must be turned in on time, or they will suffer a 20% per day penalty. For example, an assignment that scores 93% and is two days late will be given a score of 53% instead. If you are planning to submit an assignment late, please email the instructor before the deadline to let him know that you will be turning in the assignment late, and give an estimate for when the assignment will be turned in.
Exams must be take when scheduled, unless you have prior permission of the instructor, or a well-documented hardship situation. Even in case of a hardship situation, late exams are also penalized at 20% per day, so it is to your advantage to make up the exam as soon as possible. The make-up exam may be different from the regular exam.
In this course, students may use material from any published source. In such a case, the material must be properly attributed to the source. For example, if part of of an assignment's code is taken from a web site, each of the portions of code that is taken from the website must be identified with a comment indicating the URL from which the code was obtained.
The instructor usually comes up with assignments for which code is not available in published sources, so there is a good chance that adapting such code will not be easier than writing the code yourself.
In general, cheating means presenting the work of somebody else as one's own, or providing one's work to somebody else to help them cheat.
Except for code explicitly marked as described above, all code in assignments should be written by the individuals submitting the assignment. This means that once a group is formed, it cannot be changed, and all members of the group will get the same grade on the assignment.
Friends are not a published source, so students are not allowed to use material from their friends.
Any collaboration on an exam will be considered cheating.
No 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. Any instance of cheating will also be recorded in the student's ICS department file, and may be reported to the office of the Dean of Students, possibly resulting in disciplinary action against the student.
If you have any questions, please contact the instructor.
Any suggestions for improving these web pages should be sent to the instructor.