ECE361 — Computer Networks I

Course introduces computer networking. Programming labs are in C in a Linux environment. Network protocol labs are with Wireshark. We used the Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach textbook, by Jim Kurose and Keith Ross.

Quick links:

• Textbook website

Concepts covered

• Internet
  • Core
    • Circuit switching
    • Packet switching
      • Store and forward
  • Packet delay
    • Transmission delay
    • Propagation delay
    • Packet loss
    • Queueing delay
  • Network protocol
  • Layered network model
• Application layer
  • Socket programming
  • TLS
  • HTTP
    • Cookies
    • Web cache
    • 1.1
    • 2
    • 3
  • Email
    • SMTP
    • IMAP
  • DNS
  • Peer-to-peer
    • Distributed hash table
    • BitTorrent
• Transport layer
  • UDP
    • Internet checksum
  • TCP
    • Automatic repeat request (ARQ)
      • Stop-and-wait (SW)
      • Go-back N (GBN)
      • Selective repeat (SR)
    • Congestion control (Tahoe, Reno)
  • QUIC
• Network layer
  • Router
  • Data plane
    • Forwarding
      • Destination-based forwarding
        • Routing table
        • Longest prefix matching
      • Generalised forwarding (OpenFlow)
    • Switching fabric
    • Queueing
    • Buffer management
    • Scheduler
      • First-come-first-serve
      • Priority queue
      • Round-robin scheduling
      • Weighted-fair queueing
    • Internet Protocol
      • IPv4, IPv6
      • Addressing
        • Subnet
        • Classful addressing
        • Classless interdomain routing (CIDR)
      • Address allocation
        • DHCP
        • Route aggregation
      • NAT
  • Control plane
    • Routing algorithm
      • Dijkstra’s algorithm (link state)
      • Bellman-Ford algorithm (distance vector)
        • Poisoned reverse
    • ICMP
      • Traceroute
    • Autonomous system
      • Intra-AS routing (OSPF)
      • Inter-AS routing (BGP)
• Link layer
  • Network interface card (NIC)
  • Error detection and correction
    • Parity check
    • Internet checksum
    • Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
      • Bitwise division
      • Polynomial division
      • Shift register
      • Primitive polynomial
  • Multiple access protocol
    • Channel partitioning
      • Time-division multiple access (TDMA)
      • Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA)
    • Random access protocols
      • ALOHA
      • CSMA
    • “Taking turns” protocols
      • Polling
      • Token passing
      • Cable access network
  • Ethernet
    • MAC address
    • ARP
    • Ethernet switch and hubs
  • VLAN
  • MPLS

Exam notes

Routing protocols:

• Link state (Dijkstra’s) — OSPF
• Distance vector (Bellman-Ford) — BGP

Underlying protocols:

• TCP — BGP
• IP — OSPF, ARP, ICMP, DHCP

Cyclic redundancy check: D bits, then R bits.

$$R=\text{remainder}\left(\frac{D\cdot 2^r}{G}\right)$$

The probability that a given node has a success in a slot is:

$$P_s=p(1-p{)}^{N-1}$$

Efficiency:

$$Np(1-p{)}^{N-1}$$

What is the chief difference between MPLS and IP Tunnelling?

• In MPLS all frames follow the same route from over the MPLS network. The route should be established before the start of the communication.
• In IP tunnelling, the source and the destination of the tunnel are fixed, but the routes may change throughout the communication.
• MPLS needs route reservation before the start of communication.