Computer Networks

CS 318
Spring 2000

Instructor:
Thomas P. Kelliher
Hoffberger 140
Office phone: 337-6189
Home phone: 931-2946
Send mail to kelliher AT DOMAIN bluebird.goucher.edu
http://phoenix.goucher.edu/~kelliher
Office hours: MWF 12:20--1:20pm. Th 9:00-10:00am. Other times by appointment.

Class:
Hoffberger 123
MWF 1:30pm--2:20pm

Objectives:

The objectives of this class are:
  • To develop an awareness of the issues involved in distributed systems.
  • To achieve an understanding of the design models and principles associated with distributed systems.
  • To gain hands-on experience with distributed systems by configuring and studying client services on Unix workstations and through writing some distributed tools and applications.

This class will be run as a seminar/lab, with extensive discussions of the course material and several closed lab sessions. I assume that you are proficient in some programming language, such as C, C++, or Java, and are willing to work to become comfortable with the Unix environment.

Textbook:

D. E. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 1999. Required.

Other Resources:

Other resources will be made available through links to Web sites and file repositories on phoenix. If you're interested in books, such as user's guides to Unix, Perl, Unix administration, or Unix services, I can make recommendations.

Grading:
Grade Distribution

A = [92--100], A- = [90--92), B+ = [88--90), B = [82--88), B- = [80--82), etc.

Course Point Distribution

The following is tentative. There are 660 total points for the course.

  1. Projects --- There will be three or four projects during the semester. Projects will be worth a total of 300 points. Late projects will be accepted only by prior arrangement.

  2. Term project --- The term project will be worth 150 points. It will be due and presented at the ``final.''

  3. Exam --- There will be one midterm worth 150 points. Tentatively, the midterm will be April 3.

  4. Attendance and participation --- 60 points.

Course Handouts:

Most course handouts will be made available once in class. After that, they may be obtained from the class home page on the World Wide Web. Some course handouts will only be distributed through the class home page.

Participation:

Attendance of classes, while not required, is quite important. Attendance and participation are necessary learning components and are a part of your final grade. Please inform me beforehand if you will be absent. Remember that you are responsible for making up missed work.

I expect that you will complete reading assignments before class and come to class prepared to discuss the day's material.

Integrity:
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Refer to the Student Handbook.

Topics to be discussed:

  1. Perl.
  2. Networking basics: packets, connections, addressing, routing, etc.
  3. Sockets and network programming.
  4. Linux from an administrator's viewpoint
  5. Apache: a web server.
  6. MySQL: a SQL database.
Remaining topics to be determined.



Thomas P. Kelliher
Thu Jan 27 10:52:14 EST 2000
Tom Kelliher