Click here to see a PREVIEW of important rules
that was posted before the semester started.
This is an undergraduate level course covering the fundamental concepts of networking as embodied in the Internet.
Topics covered in this are: design principles, layering, protocol design/analysis of the global Internet;
networked applications; the structure/architecture of the Internet;
protocols for network transport and congestion control; network layer and routing; link layer/MAC; and network security.
You will also learn to write multi-threaded programs to create a network of communicating servers using "socket programming"
(which some would consider as "system programming") in C++. You will learn to make "system calls" to interact with "the system".
There will be 5 programming assignments and some of them can be quite time-consuming and challenging to implement and debug.
Therefore, the workload of this class can be quite high and it's important to keep up with the pace of the class and try to
avoid starting a lab or programming assignment only when the deadline approaches.
-
|
| MW Section (30050R)
| TT Section (30003R)
| Instructor |
Bill Cheng
(click to see office hours)
Email:
<bill.cheng@usc.edu>
|
|
| Time |
MW 12:30pm - 1:50pm |
TT 9:30am - 10:50am |
| Location |
THH 102 |
WPH B27 |
| TA |
Bowen Song,
Email:
<bowenson@usc.edu>
Office Hours: Thu 3:30-4:30pm, Fri 9:45-10:45am (on Zoom)
|
Sitao Xiang,
Email:
<sitaoxia@usc.edu>
Office Hours: Fri 10:30am-2:30pm (on Zoom)
|
| CPs |
|
| Graders |
Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami, Email: <sselvamu@usc.edu>
| Liu, Yilin, Email: <yliu4860@usc.edu>
| | (If needed, the grader will hold regrade sessions the week after the announcement of each assignment's grades.)
|
|
| Midterm Exam |
during class time, Wed, 3/5/2025 (firm)
|
during class time, Thu, 3/6/2025 (firm)
|
| Final Exam |
(NEW) [11:00:00am-11:40:00am), Fri, 5/9/2025 (firm).
|
(NEW) [9:00:00am-9:40:00am), Tue, 5/13/2025 (firm).
|
Class Resources
| Syllabus |
: |
textbooks, topics covered, grading policies, additional resources, etc.
|
| Lectures |
: |
information about lectures (and lectures slides in PDF format)
|
| Videos |
: |
information about accessing old lectures and discussion videos on D2L/Brightspace
|
| Discussions |
: |
information about discussion sections and quiz schedule
|
| Labs |
: |
information about labs
|
| Programming |
: |
programming assignments (please also see important information about programming assignments
at the bottom of this web page)
|
| Forum |
: |
Piazza Forum for discussing
course materials and assignments. You are required to be
a member of this group. (This group is by invitation only.)
Please do not send request to join this group until after the first lecture.
|
(in reversed chronological order)
- 5/14/2025:
- Below is the grade normalization information for pa5.
Please note that this only applies to the grader-dependent part of your grade.
If you are graded by Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami <sselvamu@usc.edu>,
her pa5 average was 81.43 with a standard deviation of 23.85.
If you are graded by Liu, Yilin <yliu4860@usc.edu>,
his pa5 average was 81.57 with a standard deviation of 25.63.
Please note that if one grader's average is higher than another grader's average, it doesn't necessarily mean that one grader is a tougher grader
and the other grader is an easier grader. It may be the case that one grader just happen to get more submissions with lower grades, no matter which grader grades them.
To figure out your normalized score for pa5, here's what you can do.
If your grader-dependent part of your grade is X and your grader's average is A,
your normalized grader-dependent part of your grade would be
X+(81.57-A).
Your minimum score is still one point if you have submitted something for grading and your maximum grader-dependent part of your score is still 100.
As explained in Grade Normalization, if your grader-dependent part of your grade is 100 (which is the maximum),
since it's a perfect score, your grade will not be adjusted.
As I have mentioned in Lecture 1, although this kind of normalization is not perfect, since this is what was announced at the beginning of the semester, we will stick to this
particular way of normailzation for all the programming assignments for the rest of the semester, knowing that it's not perfect.
- 5/7/2025:
- Below is the grade normalization information for pa4.
Please note that this only applies to the grader-dependent part of your grade.
If you are graded by Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami <sselvamu@usc.edu>,
her pa4 average was 94.81 with a standard deviation of 13.97.
If you are graded by Liu, Yilin <yliu4860@usc.edu>,
his pa4 average was 94.76 with a standard deviation of 19.48.
Please note that if one grader's average is higher than another grader's average, it doesn't necessarily mean that one grader is a tougher grader
and the other grader is an easier grader. It may be the case that one grader just happen to get more submissions with lower grades, no matter which grader grades them.
To figure out your normalized score for pa4, here's what you can do.
If your grader-dependent part of your grade is X and your grader's average is A,
your normalized grader-dependent part of your grade would be
X+(94.76-A).
Your minimum score is still one point if you have submitted something for grading and your maximum grader-dependent part of your score is still 100.
As explained in Grade Normalization, if your grader-dependent part of your grade is 100 (which is the maximum),
since it's a perfect score, your grade will not be adjusted.
As I have mentioned in Lecture 1, although this kind of normalization is not perfect, since this is what was announced at the beginning of the semester, we will stick to this
particular way of normailzation for all the programming assignments for the rest of the semester, knowing that it's not perfect.
- 5/6/2025: Below are the links for starting the final exams.
These links will become active approximately 3 minutes before the respective exam start time and you can start working on the exam as soon as you have downloaded the exam.
If you would like to take the alternate final exam, you must send me an email to get approved.
You can only take the alternate final exam if I have confirmed that you are taking the alternate final exam.
Plesae make sure you have done the following:
- watch the recorded Lecture 11 on 2/24,25/2025 or read the PDF slides for exam logistics
- use Quiz 7 as final exam rehearsal (for the real final exam, you cannot say that you submit late because you are not familiar with some of the exam procedure)
- submit your signed final exam academic integrity honor code pledge (you will not be able to download your midterm exam if I don't have a signed pledge from you
and you will get a zero for your final exam)
No matter how late you start your exam, your exam must end at the same time as everyone else who is taking the same exam.
- 4/29/2025:
The final exam will be a 40-minute long take-home exam,
and it will be conducted in the same manner as the midterm exam (please see Lecture 11 on 2/24,25/2025 for the
logistics and replace the date and time with what's appropriate for your final exam).
No matter how late you start your exam, your exam must end at the same time as everyone else who is taking the same exam.
There is also an alternate final exam at [7:00:00pm-7:40:00pm) on Fri, 5/9/2025.
Although this exam was originally provided for students who are taking CSCI 350, any student can choose to take the alternate final exam instead of the standard final exam.
If you would like to take the alternate final exam instead of the standard final exam, all you need to do is to send me an email to let me know before the end of day on 5/8/2025.
Please see slide 3 of Lecture 26 regarding the alternate final exam (and all the final exams).
The final exam will cover everything from the first slide of Lecture 12 on 2/26,27/2025
to the last slide of Lecture 26 on 4/28,29/2025.
Since the 2nd part of the course depends on stuff covered by the midterm,
I cannot say that I will not ask anything covered by the midterm, and
you do need to know the material covered by the midterm. Therefore, it would
be more appropriate to say that the final exam will focus on the material
not covered by the midterm.
Regarding what types of questions will be on the final, please see
the Exams section of the course description web page.
Regarding regrade policy, please see
the Regrade section of the course description web page.
Here is a quick summary of the final exam topics (not all topics covered may be listed):
- Ch 3 - Transport Layer
- (3.1) introduction and transport-layer services
- (3.2) ultiplexing and demultiplexing
- (3.3) connectionless transport: UDP
- (3.4) principles of reliable data transfer
- (3.5) connection-oriented transport: TCP
- (3.6) principles of congestion control
- (3.7) TCP congestion control
- Ch 4 - The Network Layer: Data Plane
- (4.1) overview of network layer
- (4.2) what's inside a router
- (4.3) the Internet protocol (IP): IPv4, addressing, IPv6, and more
- (4.4) generalized forwarding and SDN
- Ch 5 - The Network Layer: Control Plane
- (5.1) introduction to the network control plane
- (5.2) routing algorithms
- (5.3) intra-AS routing in the Internet: OSPF
- (5.4) routing among the ISPs: BGP
- (5.5) the SDN control plane
- (5.6) ICMP: the Internet control message protocol
- (5.7) network management and SNMP
- Ch 6 - The Link Layer and LANs
- (6.1) introduction to the link layer
- (6.2) error-detection and correction techniques
- (6.3) multiple access links and protocols
- (6.4) switched local area networks
- (6.5) link virtualization: a network as a link layer
- (6.6) data center networking
- (6.7) retrospective: a day in the life of a web page request
- Ch 7 - Wireless and Mobile Networks
- (7.1) introduction wireless and mobile networks
- (7.2) wireless links and network characteristics
- (7.3) wifi: 802.11 wireless LANs
- Labs and programming assignments
- multithreading part 4 - generalized synchronization with condition variables
- PA3, PA4, PA5 and Labs 8 through 14
- specs
- FAQs
- various discussions about these assignments
- 4/27/2025: Please download, fill out, sign,
and submit the Final Exam Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge as soon as possible.
Please understand that if I don't get a signed pledge from you, I will not send a final exam to you
because I need you to promise me that you won't cheat before I can send you an exam (and your final exam score will be zero).
- 4/17/2025: Quiz 7 will mainly focus on Lectures 20/21/22/23, Labs 12 & 13, and Weeks 12 & 13 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 4/18/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 7 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 7 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 4/18/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
- 4/10/2025:
- Below is the grade normalization information for pa3.
Please note that this only applies to the grader-dependent part of your grade.
If you are graded by Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami <sselvamu@usc.edu>,
her pa3 average was 96.50 with a standard deviation of 7.39.
If you are graded by Liu, Yilin <yliu4860@usc.edu>,
his pa3 average was 96.35 with a standard deviation of 12.14.
Please note that if one grader's average is higher than another grader's average, it doesn't necessarily mean that one grader is a tougher grader
and the other grader is an easier grader. It may be the case that one grader just happen to get more submissions with lower grades, no matter which grader grades them.
To figure out your normalized score for pa3, here's what you can do.
If your grader-dependent part of your grade is X and your grader's average is A,
your normalized grader-dependent part of your grade would be
X+(96.35-A).
Your minimum score is still one point if you have submitted something for grading and your maximum grader-dependent part of your score is still 100.
As explained in Grade Normalization, if your grader-dependent part of your grade is 100 (which is the maximum),
since it's a perfect score, your grade will not be adjusted.
As I have mentioned in Lecture 1, although this kind of normalization is not perfect, since this is what was announced at the beginning of the semester, we will stick to this
particular way of normailzation for all the programming assignments for the rest of the semester, knowing that it's not perfect.
- 3/31/2025: Quiz 6 will mainly focus on Lectures 16/17/18/19, Lab 11, and Week 11 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 4/4/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 6 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 6 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 4/4/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
- 3/26/2025: Quiz 5 will mainly focus on Lectures 13/14/15, Labs 9/10, and Weeks 9/10 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 3/28/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 5 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 5 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 3/28/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
- 3/26/2025:
- Below is the grade normalization information for pa2.
Please note that this only applies to the grader-dependent part of your grade.
If you are graded by Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami <sselvamu@usc.edu>,
her pa2 average was 93.91 with a standard deviation of 15.19.
If you are graded by Liu, Yilin <yliu4860@usc.edu>,
his pa2 average was 96.51 with a standard deviation of 3.59.
Please note that if one grader's average is higher than another grader's average, it doesn't necessarily mean that one grader is a tougher grader
and the other grader is an easier grader. It may be the case that one grader just happen to get more submissions with lower grades, no matter which grader grades them.
To figure out your normalized score for pa2, here's what you can do.
If your grader-dependent part of your grade is X and your grader's average is A,
your normalized grader-dependent part of your grade would be
X+(96.51-A).
Your minimum score is still one point if you have submitted something for grading and your maximum grader-dependent part of your score is still 100.
As explained in Grade Normalization, if your grader-dependent part of your grade is 100 (which is the maximum),
since it's a perfect score, your grade will not be adjusted.
As I have mentioned in Lecture 1, although this kind of normalization is not perfect, since this is what was announced at the beginning of the semester, we will stick to this
particular way of normailzation for all the programming assignments for the rest of the semester, knowing that it's not perfect.
- 3/2/2025: Below is the link for starting the midterm exams. Currently, they are inactive/invalid.
They will become valid and active approximately 3 minutes before the respective exam start time and you can start working on the exam as soon as you have downloaded your exam.
Plesae make sure you have done the following:
- watch the recorded Lecture 11 video given on 2/24,25/2025 or read the PDF slides (midterm exam logistics were presented)
- use Quiz 4 as midterm rehearsal (for the real midterm exam,
you cannot say that you submit late because you are not familiar with some of the exam procedure)
- submit your signed midterm exam academic integrity honor code pledge by the end of day on 3/4/2025
(you will not be able to download your midterm exam if I don't have a signed pledge from you)
No matter how late you start your exam, your exam must end at the same time as everyone else who is taking the same exam.
Please remember that due to my fairness policy mentioned in Lecture 1, I have to stick to all the posted rules and I cannot make an exception for any student.
- 2/26/2025:
The midterm exam will cover everything from the beginning of the semester
to slide 67 of Lecture 11 on 2/24,25/2025
and Ch 1 & Ch 2 of the Kurose & Ross textbook.
Regarding what types of questions will be on the midterm, please see
the Exams section of the course description web page
and the exam logistics slides (which I went over during Lecture 11 on 2/24,25/2025).
Regarding regrade policy, please see
the Regrade section of the course description web page.
Here is a quick summary of the midterm exam topics (not all topics covered may be listed):
- Ch 1 - Computer Networks and the Internet
- (1.1) what is the Internet
- (1.2) the network edge
- (1.3) the network core
- (1.4) delay, loss, and throughput in packet-switched networks
- (1.5) protocol layers and their service models
- (1.6) network under attack
(1.7) history of computer networking and the Internet (excluded for the purpose of the exam)
- Ch 2 - Application Layer
- (2.1) principles of network applications
- (2.2) the web and HTTP
- (2.3) electronic mail in the Internet
- (2.4) DNS - the Internet's directory service
- (2.5) peer-to-peer applications
- (2.6) video streaming and conent distribution networks
- (2.7) socket programming: creating network applications
- Labs and programming assignments
- sockets programming
- multithreading parts 1, 2, & 3
- PA1, PA2, and Labs 1 through 7
- specs
- FAQs
- various discussions about these assignments
- 2/25/2025: Please download, fill out, sign,
and submit the Midterm Exam Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge as soon as possible.
Please understand that if I don't get a signed pledge from you, I will not send a midterm exam to you
because I need you to promise me that you won't cheat before I can send you an exam.
Please note that submitting a signed pledge doesn't mean that you cannot decide to opt out of the exam later.
It just means that if you decides to take the midterm, you are promising that you will not cheat.
- 2/23/2025: Quiz 4 will mainly focus on Lectures 10/11/12, Labs 6/7, and Weeks 6/7 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 2/28/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 4 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 4 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 2/28/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
Also, if I have not received a signed Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge For Quizzes from you,
you will not be able to download your quiz and you will get a score of zero for your quiz.
- 2/12/2025:
- Below is the grade normalization information for pa1.
Please note that this only applies to the grader-dependent part of your grade.
If you are graded by Seethalakshmi Selvamuthu Kumarasami <sselvamu@usc.edu>,
her pa1 average was 98.74 with a standard deviation of 7.46.
If you are graded by Liu, Yilin <yliu4860@usc.edu>,
his pa1 average was 98.87 with a standard deviation of 5.15.
Please note that if one grader's average is higher than another grader's average, it doesn't necessarily mean that one grader is a tougher grader
and the other grader is an easier grader. It may be the case that one grader just happen to get more submissions with lower grades, no matter which grader grades them.
To figure out your normalized score for pa1, here's what you can do.
If your grader-dependent part of your grade is X and your grader's average is A,
your normalized grader-dependent part of your grade would be
X+(98.87-A).
Your minimum score is still one point if you have submitted something for grading and your maximum grader-dependent part of your score is still 100.
As explained in Grade Normalization, if your grader-dependent part of your grade is 100 (which is the maximum),
since it's a perfect score, your grade will not be adjusted.
As I have mentioned in Lecture 1, although this kind of normalization is not perfect, since this is what was announced at the beginning of the semester, we will stick to this
particular way of normailzation for all the programming assignments for the rest of the semester, knowing that it's not perfect.
- 2/3/2025: Quiz 2 will mainly focus on Lectures 4/5/6/7, Labs 3/4, and Weeks 3/4 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 2/7/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 2 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 2 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 2/7/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
Also, if I have not received a signed Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge For Quizzes from you,
you will not be able to download your quiz and you will get a score of zero for your quiz.
- 1/20/2025: Quiz 1 will mainly focus on Lecture 3, Lab 2, and Week 2 Discussions.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 1/24/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 1 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 1 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 1/24/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
Also, if I have not received a signed Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge For Quizzes from you,
you will not be able to download your quiz and you will get a score of zero for your quiz.
- 1/17/2025: Please download, fill out, sign,
and submit the Academic Integrity Honor Code Pledge For Quizzes.
Please understand that starting with Quiz 1, if I haven't received a signed pledge from you, you will not be able to download your quizzes
because I need you to promise me that you won't cheat before you can download your quiz.
- 1/17/2025: Quiz 0 will mainly focus on Week 1 discussion and Lectures 1 and 2.
It will start at 3pm (USC time), on Friday, 1/17/2025. The starting point of your Quiz 0 is at:
Currently, the above link is inactive/invalid. It will become valid and active around the Quiz 0 start time.
The timestamp of your submission ticket must be at or before 11:59:59pm, 1/17/2025 or
your submission is considered late and starting at 12:00:00am, you will lose 5% for every late minute.
Please remember that the only timestamp that we are allowed to consider is a timestamp inside a ticket issued by my submission server.
- 1/10/2025:
- Watch this area for important announcements.
- To get username and password for accessing protected
area of this web site, please visit the request access page after semester starts and submit the requested information.
(You do not have to be registered for the course to get the password. You just need to have an USC email address.)
- Due to security concerns, we cannot post Zoom meeting IDs in public area of the class website.
A summary of Zoom meeting IDs and links are provided here (password protected).
- Please do not send request to join the
class Piazza Forum until after Lecture 1.
The prerequisite for this course is CSCI 201 (Principles of Software Development).
Please see the CS Course Catalog for information about CSCI 201.
According to the CS Course Catalog,
the prerequisite for CSCI 201 is CSCI 104L, and the prerequisite for CSCI 104L is CSCI 103L.
Therefore, you will be expected to have had at least two semesters of experience programming in C++ from these courses.
In addition, a corequisite of CSCI 104L is CSCI 170, and graphs and basic graph algorithms are covered in CSCI 170.
Therefore, you will be expected to be familiar with graph representations (e.g., nodes and edges for abstract representation,
adjacency list data structure, etc.) and basic graph algorithms such as breadth-first-search (BFS).
This is not an introductory class. We will assume that you know how to program because you are supposed to have satisfied
all the prerequisites of this course. If you somehow were able to satisfy
all the prerequisites of this course without being reasonably proficient in software development, it's not our job to teach you how to program.
If you are not reasonably proficient in programming, may be you should consider taking this course at a later time when you are better at it.
Or, you should get ready to spend a lot of time doing the labs and the programming assignments
and start doing all your assignments as early as possible and seek help from the instructor, the TAs, and the course producers whenever you are stuck.
Your program must compile and run with a Makefile on a
standard 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04 system
(which can be running inside VirtualBox, VMware Fusion/Workstation, UTM or in an AWS instance).
Grading for programming assignments can ONLY be done on such a standard 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04 system.
Even if you can demonstrate that your code runs perfectly on some other system, it cannot be considered for grading and
you won't get any partial credit for it.
Please install a 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04 into VirtualBox on your laptop/desktop
as soon as possible and start using it with the very first programming assignment to get familiar with the "standard" system.
All programming assignments (including labs) are to be done in standard C++ (i.e., c++11, c++14, etc.) that's available in the
standard system.
No other programming languages will be accepted. (Sorry, no Java, no Python, and no C++ with Microsoft, Mac, or Google extensions.)
Since the standard C++ does not support networking,
all networking related programming assignments are required to be done by making system calls (with a C interface)
and without using any C++ networking libraries.
C is a proper subset of standard C++. If you know standard C++, you already know C.
Standard C++ is designed to work with system calls and we will learn about networking system calls in this class.
If the only computer you have access to is the new Mac running on a non-Intel/AMD CPU,
then it may not be possible to install VirtualBox or VMware into your machine. If that's the case,
please make a look at your options.
If you are not familiar with Linux/Unix, please read Unix for the Beginning Mage,
a tutorial written by Joe Topjian.
You can also visit UNIX Tutorial for Beginners
or Learn tcsh in Y Minutes.
If you already know how to use Unix/Linux before and just need a refresher,
please review my summary of some commonly used Unix commands and my tcsh scripting tutorial.
It's a good idea to be familiar with the terminal-based Unix/Linux development environment (vi/pico/emacs, gcc/g++, make, etc.).
If a student registered late for this class or could not be present at the beginning of the semester,
the student is still required to turn in all the assignments on time (and take all the quizzes) or the student will receive a score of 0 for these assignments (and quizzes).
No exceptions!
|
