ECE 610 - Broadband Communication Networks
Instructor
Professor
Xuemin
(Sherman)
Shen
Room:
EIT
4155
Telephone
extension:
32691
Email:
sshen@uwaterloo.ca
Lecture schedule
Thursdays 11:30 to 14:20 in EIT 3151.
Office hours
Thursdays 9:00 – 11:00.
Objectives
- To understand the fundamental concepts in communication networks;
- To understand the principles and practice of designing, analyzing, and operating networks.
Course Description
This is an introductory graduate course on broadband communication networks. The course is to present the main facets of broadband communication networks, i.e., network design, performance analysis, and protocols. The focus is on the concepts, the protocols, fundamental design principles, and performance analysis. Topics include: circuit switching, packet switching, multiplexing, protocols and layering, digital transmission, error detection and re-transmission, medium access control, routing, TCP and UDP, flow control, congestion control, etc.
Prerequisite
ECE 316, 358 or equivalent
Grading
- Assignments count for 15%
- There will be one project (to be done individually or in a group of two students) that will count for 25% of the grade.
- There will be NO midterm examination. The final examination will count for 60%
Text
Course lecture notes and handouts.
Reference Books
- Kumar, D. Manjunath, and J. Kuri: Communication Networking: An analytical approach, Morgan-Kaufman (Elsevier), 2004, ISBN 0-12-428751-4
- D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager, Data Networks, Prentice Hall, 1992.
- J. F. Kurose, K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, Third edition, Addison-Wesley, 2004.
Course website
Please see the course website for more details.
Outline
- Introduction: definition of networks, circuit switching, packet switching, network architecture, protocol and layering
- Probabilistic description of network and queuing analysis
- Physical layer: digital transmission principles and technologies
- Data link layer: Error detection and correction, re-transmission, medium access control
- Network layer: IP addressing, fragmentation, routing algorithms, etc.
- Transport layer: TCP and UDP, flow control and congestion control
- Application layer: HTTP, DNS, FTP, synthesis: a day in the life of a web request