CS/ECE 438 : Fall 2026 : Tue/Thu 3:30pm : Room 1404 Siebel

First day information

📅  Course Calendar (subject to change)

• The whats and whys of computer networking | ‣ | Lec 1 | | | Video: How does the Internet work | | 2 | Aug 27 Thu | | Why packets?
• Circuit vs packet switching
• Performance metrics | ‣ | Lec 2 | | | Design philosophy of the Internet protocols

| | 3 | Sep 1 Tue | | Internet end-to-end overview

• Naming & addressing
• Routing & forwarding
• Reliability | ‣

Illustration on network latency | Lec 3 | | 🟢 MP0 released (Setup & Socket Prog) (won’t be graded)

‣ | A brief history of the Internet | | 4 | Sep 3 Thu | | Sockets and Network Programming

• Sockets, ports and headers
• Socket programming in Linux | ‣ | Lec 4 | 🟢 HW1 released | | Beej’s guide to network programming | | 5 | Sep 8 Tue | | Internet architectural principles
• Layering
• End-to-end principle
• Fate-sharing | ‣ | Lec5 | | 🟢 MP1 released (HTTP)

‣ | - End-to-end argument in systems design

• Tussle in the Internet | | 6 | Sep 10 Thu | Application Layer | Application layer
• Client-server & peer-to-peer architecture
• HTTP, web caching, DNS | ‣ | Lec6 | | | - CHORD paper | | 7 | Sep 15 Tue | Transport Layer | Reliable transport: introduction
• Reliability on top of best-effort delivery
• Goals and correctness conditions for reliable transport
• Designing a correct reliable transport | ‣ | Lec7 | | | | | 8 | Sep 17 Thu | | Reliable transport: Design principles
• Window-based protocols
• Window sizing and BDP
• Loss detection and retransmission | ‣ | Lec8 | 🔴 HW 1 due | | | | 9 | Sep 22 Tue | | TCP: Introduction
• In-order “stream-of-bytes” delivery
• Connections, sequence numbers, dupACKs, RTO
• Congestion control and flow control basics | ‣ | Lec9 | 🟢 HW2 release | 🔴 MP1 due | A protocol for packet network intercommunication | | 10 | Sep 24 Thu | | TCP: Congestion Control
• Flow control window, congestion window
• Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease
• TCP Sawtooth, Slow Start | ‣ | | | 🟢 MP2 release (TCP)

‣ | Congestion avoidance and control | | 11 | Sep 29 Tue | | TCP: More Congestion Control

• Fast recovery
• TCP state transition overview
• TCP fairness
• TCP flavors | ‣ | | | | Analysis of the Increase and Decrease Algorithms for Congestion Avoidance in Computer Networks | | 12 | Oct 1 Thu | Network Layer | Link State Routing
• Routing tables
• Dijkstra’s algorithm
• Loops, disruptions, convergence… | ‣

‣ (credit: Wally’s slides from Fall’25) | | 🔴 HW2 due | | | | 13 | Oct 6 Tue | | Distance Vector Routing

• Bellman-Ford algorithm
• Count-to-infinity problem

IP addressing

• Hierarchical addressing, subnets | ‣ | | 🟢 HW3 release | | | | 14 | Oct 8 Thu | | BGP: Introduction and Policies
• Autonomous Systems (AS), intra-AS & inter-AS routing
• BGP and path vector routing | ‣ | | | | | | 15 | Oct 13 Tue | | BGP: Details and Issues
• BGP policies
• BGP sessions, eBGP, iBGP
• Reachability, security, convergence with BGP | ‣ | | | | | | 16 | Oct 15 Thu | | Router Architecture
• Input/Output Queueing
• Longest Prefix Matching | | | | | | | 17 | Oct 20 Tue | | Internet Protocol | | | 🔴 HW3 due

(Deadline extended to Oct 21, 11:59pm) | 🔴 MP2 due

(Deadline extended to Oct 21, 11:59pm) | | | 18 | Oct 22 Thu | Link Layer | Link layer

• Reliability
• Addressing
• Error detection and correction | | | | | | | | Oct 27 Tue | | MIDTERM | | | | | | | 19 | Oct 29 Thu | | Medium access control
• MAC protocols: partition, random, taking turns
• CSMA/CD | | | 🟢 HW4 release | 🟢 MP3 release (Routing) | | | 20 | Nov 3 Tue | | Switching in Link Layer
• Switched Ethernet
• Spanning Tree Protocol | | | | | | | 21 | Nov 5 Thu | | Putting everything together!
• ARP, DHCP
• Life of a packet in a network | | | | | | | 22 | Nov 10 Tue | Beyond the Internet | Datacenter (DC) Networking
• DC Topologies
• Network protocols in DCs
• Transport protocols in DCs | | | | Mini Project Release | | | 23 | Nov 12 Thu

| | Intra-host Networking

• NIC-to-CPU hardware datapath
• Lossy vs lossless data transfer protocols, credit-based flow control
• PCIe, DRAM, SSDs, GPUs, NVLink | | | | | | | 24 | Nov 17 Tue

| | Host Network Stack

• Linux network stack datapath
• Segmentation, polling vs interrupts, request steering
• Hardware offloads, RDMA | | | | 🔴 MP3 due 🟢 MP4 release (CSMA/CD) | | | 25 | Nov 19 Thu | | | | | | | | | | Nov 24 Tue

| | 404 class not found! Fall break | | | | | | | | Nov 26 Thu

| | 404 class not found! Fall break | | | | | | | 26 | Dec 1 Tue | | Wireless networking

• Dispersive medium
• CSMA/CA
• Hidden and exposed terminals
• WiFi protocol | | | 🔴 HW4 due | | | | 27 | Dec 3 Thu | | Network security
• Confidentiality, cryptography
• Man in the middle attack, spoofing, Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, firewalls | | | | 🔴 MP4 due | | | 28 | Dec 8 Tue | | Course wrap-up & Review
• Final exam logistics,
• Future of computer networking
• Follow-up courses, feedback
• Recap & QnA | | | | | | | | Dec 14 Mon | Time: 1:30-4:30pm Room: 1404 Siebel | FINAL | | | | | |

Lecture Notes 🗒️

Machine Problems (MPs)