CS 4396 - Computer Networks Lab

Spring 2005
Syllabus

Catalog Description: This course will enable students to gain hands-on experience with real
networks by building networks in a laboratory environment. Projects may include establishing
an intra-domain routing infrastructure in the laboratory; establishing inter-domain network
topologies with BGP used to connect the different autonomous systems; running network
services/applications on top of this network, including DHCP, DNS, HTTP, configuring firewalls;
and network management with SNMP.

Course Information: This course aims at helping students get more insight into how the
Internet works and gain hands on experience in building and configuring simple IP networks
and related services.

l Lecture time: TH 2:00 - 3:15 pm.

l Lecture place: ECSS 2.305
l Course web page: http://www.utdallas.edu/~ksarac/4396/
l Textbook:
¡ Mastering Networks: An Internet Lab Manual, Jorg Liebeherr and Magda El Zarki, Addison-Wesley,
2003.
¡ Additional reading materials will be provided via the course web page.

¡ Your CS 4390 textbook or any other Computer Networks text book.

l Prerequisites: CS 4390. (The UTD Catalog mentions 4348 as a prerequisite, it is NOT!).

Instructor Information:
Dr. Kamil Sarac (ksarac@utdallas.edu)
Office: ES 4.207
Phone: 972 883 2337
Office hours: TBA.

Teaching Assistant:
TBA
Office: TBA
Office hours: TBA

Course Summary: This course covers the technologies and protocols of the Internet. The lectures cover the design
principles of the Internet protocols, including the Internet Protocol (IP), Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Internet Control
Message Protocol (ICMP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the Domain Name System
(DNS), routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, BGP), network management protocols (SNMP), and application-level protocols (FTP,
TELNET, SMTP). In addition to an in-depth study of the Internet protocols in real network
settings, you will gain hands-on experience working on networking equipment and acquire
useful networking skills. By putting computer networking into practice, this course aims to
teach how network protocols work and how networked systems interact.

A major part of the lecture is a lab component, with 10 lab sections. Each lab consists of a prelab, lab
exercises, and a postlab report. Prelab will be individual work. The lab exercises and postlab reports
will be completed in groups of two. The lab exercises are completed without supervision and require on
the average 3 hours of work. Please note that this is a lab oriented course and you will spend time
doing a prelab work (mostly reading material on the web and/or 4390 textbook, etc); lab exercises (3
hours on the average for each lab); and postlab report.

Student Evaluation: 20% Exam 1; 20% Exam 2; 50% Lab reports; 10% Class participation.

Miscellaneous:

l Class participation in terms of asking questions is highly encouraged. Please do not be afraid to ask questions no
matter how simple you might think the answer could be. This type of interaction helps improve the effectiveness
of the class and breaks the monotony.
l The presentation slides will be available on the class web page. I will try to put them up before each class
meeting but no guarantees on that.
l After the grades for your mid-term and homework assignments are announced, you will have one week to appeal
for your grades. So, please keep this in mind if you think that there is a problem/issue with the grading of your
work.
l You should plan on taking the exams on the scheduled times. No late/early exams unless in case of an emergency
situation such as health emergency or similar un-avoid-able situations and you need to provide convincing
documentation for it. The exams will be closed books and closed notes. No calculators (unless otherwise stated)
and no other electronic devices such as cell phones, beepers, etc. should be used during the exam.