CS2911: Computer Networking

CS2911

Instructional Vocabulary

This is an old version of this course, from Fall 2016. A newer version is available here.

If you grew up speaking languages other than English, there are some words that I use on quizzes and exams that you might like to practice.

If you see any other words that might help other students, please send them to me. If you have other definitions of the words here, or other examples that you would like to share, please send those to me, too!

Sentences in italics give examples of how the words and phrases may be used.

Instructional Phrases

These are words and phrases that I use to describe what I want you to do on a problem.

Determine: Calculate or compute. Determine the number of bytes in the HTTP response body
Assuming: For this problem, whatever follows is true. Assuming x = 5, and x + y = 3, find the value of y.
Suppose: For this problem, whatever follows is true. Suppose the packet is lost. Write how the sender will respond.
Consider: Use this information for this problem. Consider the table below. What is the first byte of the HTTP response?
Illustrate: Draw a diagram. Illustrate how the nodes in your network will communicate, including both servers and clients
Sketch: Draw a diagram. Make a brief sketch, showing how messages are sent back and forth between the server and client.
Stand: Is defined as. In this case, q stands for the second prime number.
Which is which: When distiguishing two terms, make clear how your definitions match to the terms. Explain the differene between an HTTP request and an HTTP response, making clear which is which.
As in ...: This gives an example. Do this assignment the same way as the example. As in the last lab, the shift register shifts left, taking in DATA as the least significant bit on the rising clock edge.
Box
Circle

Technical Terms

These are words that have special meanings in this class. You don't need to know them at the start of the class, but you might want to learn their other, more common, English meanings that native English speakers probably already know. There is no need to learn the technical meanings until we come to them in class. It's hard to understand what these technical meanings are without the context that the class will give you.

Here are the common English meanings for these words. We will study the technical meanings as we come to them.

Week 1

Packet: A bundle, a little pile of things packet up together, an envelope, a little package. Please pick up your information packet as you come into the room.
Layer: One of several things stacked up on each other. A three-layer cake
Stack: A group of layers, each layer on top of the one below it. A stack of pancakes
Link: One ring in a chain
Channel: TODO water path, TV channel is also path
Hop: Hop like a bunny
Bite
Nibble
Bit
Dump: To pour out without any concern for maintaining the order He dumped his laundry on the bed.
Protocol
Host
Node

Week 2

Ordinal number: Numbers for position or rank (as opposed to cardinal numbers, for quantity). 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are ordinal numbers.
Header
Body
Message
Field: (In forms) a blanks space where the user can write or type something. Be sure to fill in all the required fields before hitting submit.
Literal

Grammatical Structures

These aren't terms or phrases, but rather grammatical structures that I use in assignments. Currently, I only give examples of these, not definitions.