Course Information

• Lecture Time/Place: Tue/Thu; 9:00am to 11:00am; Trailer 932

• Course WWW Page: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~almeroth/classes/F01.201B/

• Course Material
  • Students need to have a CS account--enabling them to use the computers in the CSIL lab. This is not automatic for students taking this course as MAT 201B. MAT 201B students need to go to the CS office and fill out the form for obtaining a CS account. This should be done immediately since a programming assignment is due in a couple of weeks.

  • Two different styles of the class textbook:
    • J. Kurose and K. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet", Addison-Wesley, 1st edition, July 2000.
      • Good descriptive text, but top-down instead of bottom-up.

    • Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, Prentice Hall, 3rd Edition, January 1996.
      • Terse but thorough.

  • Reference material to help with programming:
    • M. Donahoo and K. Calvert, Pocket Guide to TCP/IP Sockets (C Version), Morgan Kaufmann, 1st edition, October 2000.
      • Early version... will be renamed. Thorough and cheap.

    • M. Donahoo and K. Calvert, TCP/IP Sockets in Java: Practical Guide for Programmers, Morgan Kaufmann, 1st edition, October 2001.
      • Thorough and cheap. Available late October 2001.

    • W. Richard Stevens, UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1: Networking APIs--Sockets and XTI, 2nd Edition, October 1997.
      • Large, long, and complete.

    • Douglas E. Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1: Principles, Protocols and Architecture, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition, February 2000.
      • Alternative to Stevens and also large, long, and complete.

    • Deitel and Deitel, Java: How to Program, Prentice Hall, 3rd Edition, August 1999.
      • Java version and large, long, and complete.

• Required Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of communications and network theory. However, because this class is a survey of the Internet and its technology, students who already have a significant networking background should not take this class. More quantitatively, students cannot have taken CS176B or CS176C, and students who take MAT201B/CS290I cannot take CS176B or CS176C for credit.

Instructor Information

Kevin Almeroth
Office 2113, Engineering I
E-mail: almeroth@cs.ucsb.edu
Phone: 893-2777
Office Hours: Wednesday from 9am-11am in my office (appointments also available)

Teaching Assistant Information

Gilroy Menezes
E-mail: gilroy@cs.ucsb.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 11am-12pm in CSIL

Course Objectives

• Understand the basics of network communication.
• Understand how the Internet is used to deliver audio/video including protocols and techniques.
• Build small tools and prototype applications to ``put concepts into action''.
• Sample some of the advanced research currently underway in the field.

Student Evaluation

• 05%: HW0--Subscribing to the class mailing list
• 10%: HW1--Understanding UDP and TCP in C and Java
• 15%: HW2--Watching the Network
• 20%: HW3--On-Demand Server
  • HW3 server code
• 20%: Midterm
• 30%: Final Exam