Week	Date	Topic	Reading	Assignment
1	8/25	Course introduction; overview of computer networks; introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web HTML documents and simple forms	Cassel/Austing Chapter 1  Cassel/Austing Chapter 2	Web search exercise. Begin design of your own web page
2	9/1	HTML forms processing. Fundamentals of networked applications. The OSI seven-layer model.		Web Form Exercise
3	9/8	Abstract Syntax Notation The Application Layer and Common Services: ACSE, ROSE, RTSE, CCR Needs of remote execution	Cassel/Austing Chapter 3  Cassel/Austing Chapter 4	Begin thinking about a network based application you wish to develop
4	9/15	Web Server Configuration	Apache documentation	Web page due
5	9/22	Client/Server computing		Survey exercise due
6	9/29	Email and File transfer applications	Cassel/Austing Chapters 5 and 7  (distributed in hard copy )	Application #1: discussion of requirements, suggestions of projects. By next week, put together a description of your project.  Work in teams? Discuss in class.
7	10/6	Directory Services	Cassel/Austing Chapter 8	Application #1 description due List team members, project goals, deliverables
8	10/13	Encryption, Compression Presentation Layer and XDR; RPC	Cassel/Austing Chapters 9-10
Break	10/20
9	10/27	Transport Layer	Cassel/Austing Chapter 11
10	11/3	Network Layer	Cassel/Austing Chapter 12	Application #1 due Begin second application or research paper (Possible extension of first application or paper related to it. Otherwise, new project)
11	11/10
12	11/17	Medium Access Control, Network Connectivity	Cassel/Austing Chapters 13-14
Thanks- giving Break	11/24
14	12/1	Conference style presentation of projects Attendance and active participation by all students at all sessions required Abstracts of presentations will be available at least one week ahead of time.  There will be demonstrations of the working projects, and questions, suggestions from the audience
15	12/8
16	12/15

Basic expectations of the Web page assignment:

• A Title, suitably displayed.
• An address section at the bottom identifying you as the author and providing access to you if the reader wants to send feedback.
• A good background image.  Be careful that the text is still legible when displayed on the background you choose.
• At least one image.
• Links of the following kinds:
• to another place in the page,
• to another file in the same filespace as the web page,
• to another file that is not on the same computer system as the web page itself.
• A table or frames to organize the space of the page.

Make your goals clear and be sure the page is organized to present some kind of information well.
There is lots of room for creativity and imagination in this assignment.  These guides are given to describe a base expectation.  Go on from there in any way that seems appropriate for you.
 

Web pages created by class members:

Text

Cassel, Lillian N. And Richard H. Austing.  Computer Networks. Manuscript.

You will need regular access to the class web page. You will need access to a computer system where you can prepare web materials and make
them accessible to the rest of the class. You will also need to be able to write programs that use network resources and allow others in the class to have access to your programs. You will have an account on the department computers for this purpose. You may use other computers as long as the access requirements are met.

Access to G50 (The Networks Lab) will be available when you need it. If you need entrance to the room when it is not open, ask for a key ahead of time.
 
 

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Grading
Your performance will be assessed based on regular, active participation in and contribution to the class discussions; some homework assignments such as the Web page creation, a project that you will design and implement; several class presentations of varying length. I prefer not to have examinations unless it seems necessary for the integrity of the course. An important component of class participation is finding related material for this course on the Web and submitting the links to be added to the class page.  You will be required to provide a written review of at least two such pages submitted by others.

Here is a starting point for a grading plan:
Grades available are A, B, C and F, with + / - options on the A, B, C grades.

1.  Do everything that is required for the course (submit every assignment on time, complete and correct), attend every class and participate actively.
        ===> B
2.  Do less than what is required, grade goes down.  The amount depends on how much is neglected.
3.  Do more than what is required, the grade goes up.  Again, the amount of increase depends on the degree of excellence of the work.

        Examples of extra effort (others are possible):

1. More web pages than required
2. More reviews than required
3. Contribute to the class beyond being present and participating.  For example, initiate discussions, followup on questions that come up and report back later, etc.
4. Do more than the basic requirement in each project.  For example, include additional functionality that enhances the project.  Please note, extra features do not count if the basic requirements are not met. Including features that reflect your understanding of theory aspects of the course is another example of a strong project that would earn credit beyond the basic score.   If you do a paper as one of the projects, you could have an exceptional list of references, push against the upper limit of paper length, do a particularly good exposition or analysis of your topic.

Class Projects

Class Projects links: