Faculty Contact Information:
| vcristea1@faculty.ed.umuc.edu | |
Consultation:
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Required Texts and Readings:
Comer, D.E. (2004) Computer Networks and Internets, (4th Edition.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Internet-based readings from the Instructor found in the Course Content section below.
Hardware and software requirements:
- Web Page publishing software such as Netscape Composer, MS Front Page or Dreamweaver.
- Access to a sound card and microphone for recording and software capable of storing and forwarding streaming sound files, such as Realmedia, Goldwave, or QuickTime.
- Shockwave plugin for your web browser. Available at http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
- UMUC instructions for creating a student account. Available at http://www.umuc.edu/suppserv/it/hosts/unix_guide/index.html#account
- UMUC instructions for publishing a web page available at http://www.umuc.edu/suppserv/it/hosts/web_page.html
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Supplementary Readings:
| All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills. | |
Recommended Journals:
| Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that IT professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line. | |
Course Description:
| This course studies the Intenet, addressing both its technological basis and its applications. The first part of the course studies Internet technology including packet networking, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and Internet security and authentication (for example, firewalls, encryption, and virtual private networks), Internet 2, and IPV.6. The second part of the course reviews Internet applications and its evolving use for multimedia transmission (such as voice over the Internet), private and leased service IP networks, e-commerce, data warehousing, data mining, and policy issues such as universal service and access. | |
Course Goals:
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should understand and be able to apply knowledge concerning:
- Network Programming and Applications
- Transmission Media
- Packet Transmission
- LAN Technologies
- WAN Technologies
- TCP/IP
- IP Telephony
- Client-Server Interaction
- World Wide Web Pages
- Active Web Document Technologies
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Course Objectives:
At the end of the course the students should,
- Describe the physical and software infrastructure of the public Internet.
- Explain the concept of a carrier signal, modulating a carrier, and how a modem encodes data on a carrier wave.
- Describe packet switching and identify the motivation for using packets and the characteristics used to categorize networks.
- Define Internet terms and concepts including Ethernet, FDDI, token ring, ATM, and xDSL.
- Describe Internet architectures and applications, including routers, internet addressing, address binding, and TCP/IP protocols.
- Describe general principles underlying network applications such as e-mail, file transfer, and web browsing.
- Identify the basic elements of security, including both firewalls and encryption.
- Publish and maintain a web site containing textual, graphical, and sound files.
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Grading Information:
The final grade will be determined as follows:
First Examination 20%
Second Examination 20%
Third Examination 20%
Essays (average grade of all essays) 14%
Project 14%
Participation in class 12%
According to the Graduate School grading policy, the following symbols and scale are used:
A = excellent (90-100)
B = good (80-89)
C = passing (70-79)
F = failure (less than 70)
The grade of "B" represents the benchmark for the Graduate School. It indicates the student has demonstrated competency in the subject matter of the course, i.e., has fulfilled all course requirements on time, has a clear grasp of the full range of course materials and concepts, and is able to present and apply these materials and concepts in clear, reasoned, well-organized and grammatically correct responses, whether written or oral.
Only students who full meet this standard and, in addition, who demonstrate exceptional comprehension and application of the course subject matter, merit an "A."
Students who do not meet the benchmark standard of competency fall within the "C" range or lower. They, in effect, have not met graduate level standards. Where this failure is substantial, they earn an "F." | |
Course Requirements:
1. Examinations. There will be three major examinations. They will happen in Sessions 5, 10 and 14. You will have one week to complete each exam. All of them will consist of list of questions, designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate not only how well you have assimilated the content of the course, but also how well you can apply the concepts. The three examinations will have equal weight and will count for 20% each of your total grade.
2. Short Essays
There will be two short essays, which are due one week before each one of the first two exams. You will be given two weeks prior to the due date a set of options of proposed topics, from which you will choose one topic to develop your short essay, that may require a research component. For short I mean around 3 pages, and around means more or less 1 page. The short essay has the intent of grasping your critical thinking of putting together information and developing further your writing skills. Being short requires focus and objectiveness, while avoiding plagiarism. The average grade for the two essays will count as 14% of your grade.
3. Project
The project represents another important activity in the class. It will consist of designing and building a web site and will add knowledge to what you acquire in the class. The project will count for 14% of your total grade.
4. Class participation
Throughout the semester you will be expected to participate meaningfully by engaging in class or online discussions. Such participation will count for 12% of your total grade. For the online participation evaluation, the number of responses is important, but also important is the quality of the participation and the significance of your contributions.
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Description of Course Requirements:
Successful graduate students in American universities dedicate approximately three hours of preparation/study time for every hour spent in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the following course requirements were developed on the assumption that students would be prepared to spend approximately 150 hours of their own time working on them. In an 8-week term, that is the equivalent of a half-time job. Most 14-week graduate distance education courses require at least 10 hours per week of dedicated time, plus time spent in the virtual classroom.
STATEMENT ON WRITING REQUIREMENTS:
Effective managers and leaders are also effective communicators. Written communication is an important element of the total communication process. The Graduate School recognizes and expects exemplary writing to be the norm for course work. To this end, all analyses and papers must demonstrate graduate level writing ability and comply with the format requirements of the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association. All writing assignments will be graded on the basis of content, logic, analysis, mechanics, organization, and research. Careful attention should be given to source citations, proper listing of references, the use of footnotes, and the presentation of tables and graphs. Work submitted online should follow standard procedures for formatting and citation.
POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Academic integrity is central to the learning and teaching process. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will contribute to the maintenance of academic integrity by making all reasonable efforts to prevent the occurrence of academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) obtaining or giving aid on an examination, having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination, doing work for another student, and plagiarism of all types.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator. Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by following carefully accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge these sources in footnotes. The penalties for plagiarism include a zero or a grade of F on the work in question, a grade of F in the course, suspension with a file letter, suspension with a transcript notation, or expulsion. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
DISABLED STUDENTS:
Students with disabilities who need to register or request services should contact the Staff Support Team four to six weeks in advance of registration to request and register for services.
COURSE EVALUATIONS:
Feedback on each graduate course and instructor is important to the university, your professor, and to all UMUC students. UMUC has the responsibility to assess the effectiveness of classroom instruction, and each student has the responsibility to provide accurate and timely feedback through completion of the course evaluation form. This is a shared obligation for us all. It is therefore important that you complete the evaluation form for each course you attend. This should be viewed as an additional course and program requirement. | |
Course Schedule:
Session 1 Characterization of Internet
Read Me First (inside Course Content)
Comer, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-46)
Lecture Notes for Session 1 (inside Course Content)
Suggest Exercises: Session 1 Posting (TBA)
Session 2 Data Transmission. Packets
Comer, Chapters 4-7 (pp. 47-100)
Lecture Notes for Session 2
Suggested Exercies: Session 2 Posting (TBA)
Session 3 LAN Technologies
Comer, Chapters 8-11 (pp. 101-176)
Lecture Notes for Session 3
Suggested Exercises: Session 3 Posting (TBA)
Session 4 WAN Technologies
Comer, Chapters 12-14 (pp. 177-234)
Suggested Exercises: Session 4 Posting (TBA)
Lecture Notes for Session 4
Essay 1 due
Session 5 First Examination
Session 6 Network Characteristics, Protocols and Layering
Comer, Chapters 15-17 (pp. 235-284)
Lecture Notes for Session 6
Suggested Exercises: Session 6 Posting (TBA)
Session 7 Internetworking
Comer, Chapters 18-22 (pp. 285-354)
Lecture Notes for Session 7
Suggested Exercises: Session 6 Posting (TBA)
Session 8 Transport and Internet Routing
Comer, Chapters 23-27 (pp. 355-420)
Lecture Notes for Session 8
Suggested Exercises: Session 8 Posting (TBA)
Session 9 Network Applications I
Comer, Chapters 28-31 (pp. 421-480)
Lecture Notes for Session 9
Suggested Exercises: Session 9 Posting (TBA)
Essay 2 due
Session 10 Second Examination
Session 11 Electronic Mail and File Transfer
Comer, Chapters 32,34 (pp. 481-528)
Lecture Notes for Session 11
Suggested Exercises: Session 11 Posting (TBA)
Session 12 World Wide Web
Comer, Chapters 35-38 (pp. 529-598)
Lecture Notes for Session 12
Suggested Exercises: Session 12 Posting (TBA)
Project due
Session 13 Network Management and Security
Comer, Chapters 39-41 (pp. 599-636)
Lecture Notes for Session 13
Suggested Exercises: Session 13 Posting (TBA)
Session 14 Final Examination
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Academic Policies:
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Code of Civility
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center. | |
Faculty Bio:
I am a Professor of the Computer Science and Engineering Department of Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. I am a graduate of Politehnica, from which I received the master and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science.
I have a teaching experience of more than 30 years at graduate and post-graduate level programs. The topics of the taught courses include Parallel and Distributed Computing, Communication Protocols, and Computer Networks. I have conceived the syllabi and taught these courses since their introduction in the curricula of the department. Besides, I was a visiting professor of several universities in Germany, Finland, France and United Kingdom. I am happy to be now a staff member of UMUC.
I published more than 25 books and 90 specialist articles, part of them in English or French. They are addressed mainly to students but are also useful to a larger category of people (engineers, computer science specialists, teachers, trainers, etc.) The books Computer Networks and Structured Computer Organization by Andrew Tanenbaum have been translated and published in Romanian under my supervision and are now used as course support in many Romanian universities.
During my scientific career I was member or leader of many research project teams. The research subjects belong to the operating system level (input/output systems, device drivers, resource management), middleware level (network protocols, Java and CORBA), and to the application level (e-business, collaborative environments). I am involved now in an important project named CoLaborator that aims to build a Romanian collaborative environment for education and research in high performance computing. The project partners are from Romania, France, Nederland, Germany, UK, and Italy.
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