Computer Networks

Announcements

• Friday, January 27: Readings for next week are posted. The SIGCOMM deadline is 11 p.m. tonight; there should be more Emulab nodes available over the weekend. If not, let me know.
  
• Wednesday, January 25: FYI, the SIGCOMM 2012 conference deadline is Friday. Emulab nodes should be in more plentiful supply after that passes.
  
• Monday, January 23: Here is the promised link to online lab notebooks for Lab 0.
  
• Wednesday, January 18: Welcome back!
  

About this course

Welcome to the spring 2012 session of CSC 364, Computer Networks.  In this class, I hope you learn not only how the Internet works, but why it is designed the way it is. Although the Internet has been a remarkable success, we'll also consider the limitations of its design.

My goals are for you to

• consider problems, requirements, and design trade-offs--and in particular, how changing circumstances can change which solution is "right";
• learn what makes the Internet work (including the details of important protocols);
• analyze network performance;
• observe Internet protocols and systems "in the wild";
• work with programming abstractions to implement simple Internet protocols; and
• gain experience reading  literature from both research and practice.

I expect you to be comfortable programming in C and, ideally, to have some other experience with operating systems or architecture.

Intrigued? Go on to read about course mechanics and the schedule.

Janet Davis (davisjan@cs.grinnell.edu)