Welcome to CPSC 317
Internet Computing

Instructor: Donald Acton

Course Pre-requisites CPSC 213 and either:

1. CPSC 221 or
2. one of CPSC 210, 211 and all of CPSC 260, EECE 320

Course Overview

Just about any application today uses a computer network in some form. The applications are as varied as computer games, sophisticated Internet commerce systems, shared workspace or development environments, and your car. This course will provide a basic introduction to the hardware of computer networking, how networks are constructed, how data is moved and routed through a network, and the principles and factors affecting the design of applications that use computer networks. The course focuses on examining the following sorts of questions:

• What is a computer network and what are the major components that comprise a network?
• How are the hardware and software components of a network organized to efficiently move data between applications on different machines?
• What is a protocol?
• How are the protocols like TCP, IP, and UDP implemented?
• How is data moved around a network and what is its role in a computer networking?
• What are some common application level protocols and what is their role in the Internet?
• What is a distributed application and how do distributed applications differ from non-distributed ones?
• What are some standard distributed system design paradigms.

Assignments and tests

The course will have 3 assignments and 5 quizzes (about 20 minutes each, in-class).

Text

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach

Fifth Edition, Kurose and Ross.