Ateneo - UPO

The course explain how a device network works from the application layer until the network layer following the TCP/IP's iso/osi stack.

James F. Kurose, Keith W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach 8th Edition.

Understand how devices connected via networks can communicate each other.

The student should know the topics proposed in the Computer Architecture and Operating Systems courses

Lessons in class and in the computer lab. During the course, students will be proposed assignments for both theory and practice parts.

All along the course self-evaluation exercises are proposed to assess understanding of the concepts and of the technical aspects.

The exam consists of a written test with questions about the topics of the course. Each question has a specific score. The final mark is the sum of the scores assigned to each answer.

The course deals with the following:
-Intuitive introduction to the network describing in a qualitative way its structure and functionalities.
-Application level: protocols for e-mail, web and DNS.
-Session level: socket and socket programming.
-Transport level: protocols TCP and UDP
-Network level: protocols IP and ICMP
-Routing protocols: routing algorithms, notion of Autonomous System, protocols RIP, OSPF, BGP.
Besides the description of the mentioned protocols, the course aims at endowing the student with a direct experience on management of computer networks and the related issues.
Therefore, part of the course consists of practical lessons in which the student is given exercises to complete in lab hours or as a homework.

To reach the minimum required levels of knowledge associated to the course, and the corresponding skills, the student is required to have a suitable understanding and knowledge of
- the structure of the Internet and any modern computer network,
- the design choices needed to create and manage a large-scale data transmission system,
- the main techniques used for error recovery and to achieve a reliable data transfer
- the general communication and programming structures used by distributed client-server applications.
At the end of the course the student should be able to identify the key aspects of a data communication network, and to have a general understanding of the workings of the Internet and any network based on the IP technology, with the skill to apply these understandings to everyday scenarios. They will also be able to understand the communication dynamics behind the distributed software applications.