Telecommunications and Coordination Technologies

P 1Telecommunications Syllabus09/28/2018

Telecommunications and Coordination Technologies

Information Systems Department, Stern School of Business, NYU

Prof. Arthur Goldberg, Computer Science Department, NYU

Fall 1997

C20.0045

3 credits

Tuesday 7:00 - 9:50 PM

Tisch UC-59

Prerequisite: Fundamentals of Computer Systems (C20.0035) or Prof. Goldberg’s permission

Communications

Email: . Email is my favorite means of informational communications; emotional interaction requires phone or face-to-face communications.

Phone: 998-3014

Home page:

Office: 715 Broadway (across from McDonald’s), Room 711, Computer Science Department

Office hours: None. Student meetings by appointment arranged by email.

Secretary: Lourdes Santana, 998-3026, 8-3339 before 11 AM,

Email beacon:

The email beacon, or mail forwarder, enables anyone (usually Prof. Goldberg), to broadcast email to the professor and all students in the class. It will be used for important announcements. To receive these email broadcasts, you must register with the email beacon by sending email to with “subscribe c20_0045_001_fl97” in the message's body. (Majordomo is the name of the software that implements the email beacon.) You should receive a reply that says

> subscribe c20_0045_001_fl97

Succeeded.

If you do not receive this reply, email me the reply you receive and I’ll try to fix the problem.

To broadcast email to the class, send it to . Please read email every couple of days to keep up.

Abstract

This course surveys the major components and functions of computer communications systems. It discusses the major trends and issues relating to computer communications technologies as well as analysis and design issues in the development and implementation of computer networks. Among the specific topics covered are principles and standards of computer communication, the underlying technologies for communication systems, network protocols and network software.

Readings

Text: Tanenbaum, “Computer Networking”, Third Edition, 1996, ISBN 0-13-349945-6. (Tanenbaum has written the best computer networking text. It sells for $78. We found it to be least expensive at the NYU Book Store, which has 40 in Stock as of 9/1.)

Handouts:

Ajit Kambil, “Telecom history”

PC Connection, Network Hardware Advertisements

Price Waterhouse Technology Forecast

Net X-Ray user’s manual

Comer Internetworking with TCP/IP

Microsoft and Netscape’s Intranet Strategies

Schedule

Week / Date / Topic / Reading (Tanenbaum unless otherwise noted) / Tanenbaum questions
1 / 9-Sep / Introduction, History, Future Trends, Enterprise Telecomm / 1.1 - 1.2.3, 1.5.2 - 1.5.4, 1.7 / 1: 20, 22
2 / 16-Sep / Client-Server Applications / 1.5.4, 7.4.0 - 7.4.2, 7.6.0 - 7.6.3 / 7: 24, 25, 29, 37, 38
3 / 23-Sep / The Physical Layer / 2.1.3, 2.2 - 2.3, 2.8 / 2: 4, 15, 32, 33, 46, 48
4 / 30-Sep / Public Networking / 1.6, 2.4, Handout: Ajit Kambil, "Telecommunications History" / 1: 25, 26, plus supplemental
5 / 7-Oct / LANs / 1.2 - 1.2.2, 4.3.0 - 4.3.1, 4.3.3, 4.4.0, 4.5.0 - 4.5.2 / 1: 2, 4: 17, 19, 35, 36
6 / 14-Oct / Layered Protocols and Routing / 1.3.0 - 1.3.4, 1.4, 5.1, 5.2.0 - 5.2.3, 5.3.0 - 5.3.2 / 1: 11, 17, 18, 5: 1, 2
7 / 21-Oct / Internetworking And Internet Technology / 1.2.3 - 1.2.5, 5.4.0 - 5.4.5, 5.4.7, 5.5.0 - 5.5.3 / 5: 22, 24, plus supplemental
8 / 28-Oct / Midterm 1: "Networks and Protocols"; Lecture: Standards and Standard Processes / 1.7, 7.4.3, Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol I, 2rd ed., pp 513 - 518, 3rd ed., pp. 6 - 13 / 1: 27, 28, plus supplemental
9 / 4-Nov / Addressing And Directories / 5.5.2, 5.5.9 - 5.5.10, 7.2 / 5: 26, 27, 28, 7: 18
10 / 11-Nov / Electronic Commerce / Price Waterhouse, "Technology Forecast".
11 / 18-Nov / Guest Lecture: Tom Arcuri, Network Manger, Price Waterhouse, "Network Management in a Global Corporation" / Handout: Price Waterhouse "Network Strategy Whitepaper" / supplemental
12 / 25-Nov / Telecommunications Industry / 1.7.1<Industry summary, better than business week, perhaps PW tech. forecast> / supplemental
13 / 2-Dec / Midterm 2: "Using Networks and Network Businesses"; Lecture: Intranets / Microsoft, Intranet Strategy; Netscape, Intranet Vision; "The Full Service Intranet" / supplemental
14 / 9-Dec / Internet Businesses / Morgan Stanley Internet Report, Feb. 1996, Chaps 1, 3, 10, 11 (skim), 15, 16 <Newer edition?> / none

Assignments

Assignment / Handed out / Due by / Graded by / Percent
Midterm 1 (90 minutes) / 28-Oct / 4-Nov / 20
Midterm 2 (90 minutes) / 2-Dec / 9-Dec / 20
Take-home final exam / 9-Dec / 16-Dec / 22-Dec / 30
Class participation / 22-Dec / 10
Problem sets / In syllabus / Within 1 week of date on syllabus / Within a week of being passed in / 20

Class participation

Please speak up in class, and put your name on your desk so I can read it and get to know you.

Problem sets

The syllabus indicates a set of problems from Tanenbaum associated with each lecture. Some lectures have supplemental problems. Do the problems within one week of the lecture, please. We’ll correct them during the next week.

Grades for late problem sets will be penalized twenty percent per week, pro rated. At the end of the course, we’ll drop the 2 lowest scores (ranked by percentage).

If you wish, work on problems with your classmates. However, I expect better work to come from a group, according to the formula: recorded points missed = actual points missed * log 2 (number of students in the group + 1). For example, if 3 students work together and get 22 of 25 points then each receives an recorded score of 25 - 3 * log 2 (4 ) = 19. Of course, ‘recorded points missed’ <= ‘total possible points’. If you work together on any part of a problem set, pass in one copy listing all the students who worked on it.

Take-home final exam

Research shows that people learn better from experience than they do rehashing second hand explanations. Therefore, I prefer take-home exams which give you time to study and formulate your answers. Please work on the exam by yourself. As always, be certain to carefully cite and reference any other work you use.