CS2910: Computer Networking

CS2910

Outcomes

This is an old version of this course, from Fall 2015. A newer version is available here.

Week 1

Describe the role of each layer of the internet stack
Give examples of protocols at each layer of the internet stack
Explain the role of the port, IP address, and MAC address in internet protocols, and which level(s) of the internet stack each of these is found

Convert bytes between binary and hexadecimal representations, given a table.
Recall the raw representations of the ASCII characters '\r' (CR) and '\n' (LF)
Recall the raw representations of the ASCII characters A, B, C, ~~a, b, c,~~ 1, 2, and 3.
Identify individual bytes in a hexadecimal byte stream
Find a specific hexadecimal byte in a hexadecimal byte dump
Convert a many-digit binary number to its big-endian and little-endian formats
Give examples of common systems using the big-endian and little-endian formats
Encode and decode negative numbers in 1's complement and 2's complement
Determine the most positive and most negative numbers that can be represented in 1's complement and 2's complement representations with a given number of bits

Interpret by hand and write a program to parse a stream with a data header
Interpret by hand and write a program to parse a stream with end-of-data delimiters
Interpert by hand and write a program to parse a stream with a combination of headers and end-of-data delimiters
Identify the end-of-transmission without relying on an end-of-stream message

Write a list literal in Python
Write a tuple literal in Python
Index into a tuple or list in Python
Declare a python method
Write a counting (for) loop in Python
Write a sentinal-value (while) loop in Python
Write if-statements in Python
Write code that maniuplates raw bytes in Python using ord(), chr(), struct.pack(), and struct.unpack()
Write code that interprets and formats strings using str() and int()

Read and interpret the HTTP standard
Explain the difference between a persistent connection and pipelining for HTTP.
Describe how characters are encoded in the HTTP protocol
Explain how binary data is encoded in HTTP
Describe in detail the HTTP request line
Describe in detail the HTTP status line
Describe how the length of the status line is delimited
Describe the position of the header lines in an HTTP response
Explain the role of headers in an HTTP transmission
Explain the purpose of the If-Modified-Since, Content-Length, Location, Transfer-Encoding headers, and how they relate to each other.
Describe how the length of the header lines is delimited
Describe where PUT, GET, or HEAD would be found in an HTTP request, and describe what these methods are used for
Describe an example of a conditional get
Describe how the length of the request/response is determined when the Content-Length header is specified, and when chunking is used.
Explain the role of chunking in an HTTP transmission
Interpret raw HTTP protocol transmissions using Content-Length and chunking for the body.
Describe how the length of the body is delimited with and without chunking
Properly implement chunking and determine when the end of the stream has been reached.
(not yet covered) Explain how the character set can be specified for the body in HTTP
(not yet covered) Explain how URIs can encode characters from alternate character sets

Describe the roles of the SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 email protocols
Describe the operation of the SMTP protocol
Describe the operation of the IMAP protocol at a high level
Describe how character sets are encodedin in internet messages
Explain how SMTP and IMAP are used, and the server configuration used in contemporary email settings
Describe the differences between POP3 and IMAP
Program an email interface in Python

Describe the purpose of the DNS protocol
Describe the information contained in DNS A, CNAME records
Describe the roles of the various servers and clients in the DNS protocol
Describe the roles of servers used in the DNS system and their relationships to each other

List the two key transport-layer protocols
Describe the differences between UDP and TCP
Choose the appropriate protocol (UDP or TCP) for a given application and defend your answer
Select which of UDP or TCP is most appropriate for a variety of applications, and describe your choice
Describe the differences between the Application and Transport layers
Describe the key fields (source port, destination port) in a transport-layer segment headers and why these are found at the transport layer.
Describe the process of (port) multiplexing
Describe how the TCP protocol allows multiple connections \"through\" the same port
Write code to create UDP or TCP connections in Python
Explain the purpose of a checksum in a transport-layer packet.

Describe the role of the key components of the UDP segment header -- source port, destination port, length, checksum

Define flow control and congestion control
Describe the role of the key components of the TCP segment header -- source port, destination port, sequence number, acknowledgement number, receive window, internet checksum, and ACK, RST, SYN, and FIN bits.

Define public-key encryption
Describe the function of public and private keys
Explain why public/private keys are not used for encrypting the bulk of a transmission, and what is used instaed
Explain public-key (asymmetric-key) encryption using functional notation
Explain symmetric-key encryption using functional notation
Define symmetric-key encryption
Describe how exponentiation works for some numbers in the encryption and decryption equations for the simple RSA used in class
Describe situations where public-key cryptography is useful
Describe situations where symmetric-key cryptography is useful
Explain why RSA is secure, given that it determines rapidly if two numbers are prime, and our simplistic algorithm for determining the primality of numbers can also tell us all the factors of a number.