This course provides an introduction to concepts and issues involved in computer networks and data communications. Topics include the Internet, protocol layers and their service models (both the OSI and TCP/IP models), network programming, principles of reliable data transfer, congestion control, routing, error detection and correction techniques, analog and digital data signaling and transmission, and a variety of other topics in network security, multimedia networking, mobile and wireless data communications, and network management, as time permits.
Prerequisites: Computer Science 2208a/b, Computer Science 2210a/b and Computer Science 2211a/b.
Antirequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 4436a/b.
Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you will be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
Mike Burrell
| Office | Western Science 127 |
|---|---|
| Office hours | Wednesday 3:30–4:30 |
| Thursday 1:30–3:30 | |
| Phone | 519 661-2111 ext. 85126 |
| mburrel@csd.uwo.ca |
Required Textbook: Peterson and Davie.
Computer Networks, A Systems Approach. Morgan Kaufmann,
Edition 4, 2007.
There is one
copy of the fourth edition available at the Taylor Library.
The CS3357b web page is at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS3357b/. Lecture notes, assignments, labs, and other class information will be posted at this site. You are responsible for reading this information frequently.
See online timetable at https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/Timetables/mastertt/ttindex.cfm.
3 hours per week.
Copies of lecture overheads will be available on the course website well before each lecture, so that you can bring them to class and fill them in as the lecture progresses. You are advised that these are copies of the instructor's overheads and are intended to aid in note-taking during lectures; they are not complete course notes and are not a substitute for attending lectures!
Will be announced on the course website.
Each student will be given an account on the Computer Science Department senior undergraduate computing facility, GAUL. In accepting the GAUL account, a student agrees to abide by the department's Rules of Ethical Conduct.
We will occasionally need to send email messages to the whole class, or to students individually. Email will be sent to the UWO email address assigned to students by Information Technology Services (ITS), i.e., your email address @uwo.ca. It is each student's responsibility to read this email on a frequent and regular basis, or have it forwarded to an alternative email address if preferred. See the ITS website for directions on forwarding email.
However, note that email at ITS (your UWO account) and other email providers such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com establish quotas or limits on the amount of space available to you. If you let your email accumulate there, your mailbox may fill up and you may lose important email from your instructors. Losing email is not an acceptable excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.
You are encouraged to contact the course instructor via email, with brief, email appropriate questions regarding lecture material or clarification of assignments. However, please check the course website for answers to frequently asked questions, or to see if the information is already there, before emailing the instructor. Note: You must send email from your UWO account and include "3357" in the subject line. Other email will be filtered out. Please send email in plaintext format.
Assignment 1 | 5% |
Assignment 2 | 10% |
Assignment 3 | 10% |
Assignment 4 | 10% |
Midterm exam | 25% |
Final exam | 40% |
If for any reason the assignment schedule given below cannot be adhered to, the assignment marks will be pro-rated. (The 5 assignments are worth 35% of the overall mark for the course. If an assignment has to be cancelled for any reason, the remaining assignment weights will be prorated to add up to 35%.)
To be eligible to obtain a passing
mark in the course, the weighted average of the midterm and
final exam marks must be at least 50% and the weighted average of the
assignment marks must be at least 40%.
To be eligible to achieve a
final mark of 60% or higher in the course, the final exam
mark must be at least 50%
and the weighted average of the assignment marks must be at least
60%.
Note that weighted average = (total of weighted
marks / sum of weights) and weighted mark = (weight *
mark)
If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately. It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed. In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For further information please see: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf
A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here: https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_document.pdf
Midterm Exam | 1.75 hours Wednesday February 11, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (class time)Location: to be announced |
|---|---|
Final Exam | 3 hours during the April exam period |
Assignment | Weight |
Due Date | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
Assignment 1 | 5% |
Thursday Jan. 15 (11:59 p.m.) | very light |
Assignment 2 | 10% |
Thursday Feb. 5 (11:59 p.m.) | moderate |
Assignment 3 | 10% |
Thursday Mar. 12 (11:59 p.m.) | heavy |
Assignment 4 | 10% |
Thursday Apr. 2 (11:59 p.m.) | heavy |
It is your responsibility to keep up-to-date backups of assignment disk files in case of system crashes or inadvertently erased files. Keep disk copies of all material handed in, as well as the actual graded assignment, to guard against the possibility of lost assignments or errors in recording marks.
Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.
All assignments are individual assignments. You may discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual details of the work (assignment coding, answers to concept questions, etc.) must be your individual effort.
Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).
Assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will, for the student's first offence, be given a mark of zero with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences and Rules of Ethical Conduct.
The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students will be required to submit their programs in electronic form for plagiarism checking.