Greetings! I'm looking forward to teaching you the basic principles of computer networks in 14-740, a graduate-level, first-course in networking. My primary objective is for you to learn the fundamental principles underlying computer networks. I'll use a top-down approach to cover topics in the application, transport, network and link layers of the protocol stack. We will also go over advanced topics, including network management, traffic engineering and router internals. Besides learning about the nuts and bolts, you will gain an understanding of engineering tradeoffs made and design principles used in networks and protocol design.
There is no prerequisite of an undergraduate equivalent networking course; but basic computer, programming and probability theory background is required.
All dates and times for scheduled events on any course materials refer to the Pittsburgh time of that event.
Admin / Course Documents
Here are some links to various course documents that will be helpful throughout the semester.
The following list of papers and whatnot will be referenced throughout the course. You are expected to read all listed materials, save for those listed as just for fun. You will be tested on them. It behooves you to read the paper prior to the indicated lesson, as the lecture will usually discuss concepts from the paper. You will learn the material much better if you've had a chance to work on it a bit prior to lecture and get a review of the concept in class (as well as an opportunity to ask questions about it). The reverse ordering isn't optimal: If the first time you see the concept is in class, you won't be prepared to critically think about it. Completely sub-optimal (pesimal?) is to wait until the night before the final exam to look at the paper.
This lab is designed to teach you about packet sniffers and how they capture and analyze network traffic. You will also install Wireshark and start to learn how it works.
Having gotten your feet wet with the Wireshark packet sniffer in the introductory lab, you’re now ready to use Wireshark to investigate protocols in operation. In this lab, you will explore several aspects of the HTTP protocol. Before beginning this labs, you might want to review Section 2.2 of the text.
In this lab, you will continue to use Wireshark, but now you will explore the transport layer. You will examine various UDP and TCP transmissions. You will then examine the IP packet structure as well as ICMP messages.
In htis lab, you will investigate Ethernet and the ARP protocol. Knowledge from Lecture 20 and textbook sections 5.4 and 5.5 will be key. RFC 826 contains all the interesting details of the ARP protocol. You will also need the Lab3 PCAP file.
This homework assignment is designed to give you some hands on expertise with some basic networking tools. You will learn about traceroute, ping, dig and whois, all of which should give you some good insight into the operation of the network from the application level.
This homework assignment is designed to give you some hands on expertise with the argus tools as you study what information is available from flow traces. In Fall 2011, my TAs gave a good demonstration of Argus tools. Unfortunately, that video has been lost when a new media server was spun up. However, you might find the slides useful, available here.
