CS 422
Week 1
Notes written by: Mihir Gandhi
Download printable format (PDF) of this page here
Instructor: Gustavo
Office: CS 116
Email: grr@cs.purdue.edu
Web: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/cs422/
Add yourself to
mailing list:
- Login to lore.cs.purdue.edu using your CS account
- Type “mailer add me to cs422-pso<#>”
- # = Your PSO Section number
- Eg. mailer add me to cs422-pso2
Grade
Distribution:
- 50% Projects
- 50% Midterm and Final exam
- Late policy: 5% penalty per day, up to 7 days
- You cannot turning later than 7 days after due date
- 1% extra for writing notes – signup sheet will be bought to class next week
Topics we will
cover:
- Signals & Media
- Digital Vs. Analog
- Synchronous vs. Asynchronous communication
- Modulation
- Bandwidth, throughput and noise
- Time & frequency multiplexing
- Frames
- Error detection techniques
- LAN/WAN topologies
- Bus topology, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA
- Ethernet hubs
- FDDI, ATM, ADSL
- Repeaters, bridges, switches
- Routing algorithm (Distance vector, link state)
- Protocol layering
- IP Addressing
- APP
- IP Fragmentation & assembly
- TCP, Reliability, flow control, port demultiplexing
- Socket API
- Client/Server concurrency
- TELNET, FTP, HTTP, CGI
- RPC, CORBA, Java RPC
- NFS, SMB, IPv6
History of
Internet
- Started in late 1960’s
- Department of defense (DoD) through advance research project agency (ARPA) created a network to link different research centers
- Since computers were expensive, instead of giving a computer to every university, a few computers were shared using a network (ARPA-NET)
- Main use of this network was remote access (TELNET)
- After telnet, the next most popular application that used the network was E-mail
- The research on the internet continues in the 1970’s and 1980’s
- Internet becomes a commercial success in the 1990’s
- Internet has been doubling in size every 9-12 months!
What is a network?
- A group of inter-connected computers
-
Uses of a network:
· Remote access to a computer
·
Remote file access
o FTP (File transfer protocol)
o NFS (Network file system – Used on UNIX)
o SMB (pronounced ‘samba’) (Super message block – Used in Windows)
o HTTP (Hyper text transfer protocol – Used on Internet)
·
Distributed Computing
o Multiple machines work on the same problem/program simultaneously
o Eg. (1) Cluster computing: A group of inexpensive machines are connected through a fast network like Ethernet. Google distributes its search query among multiple machines
o Eg. (2) Rendering farms: Render frames in a computer generated picture
o Eg. (3) SETI (Search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) Project: People donate idle CPU cycles to analyze radio telescope data
Basic tools to
test the network:
-
· Usage in windows: ping <host>
· Tells if the machine is alive or not by sending an ICMP (Internet control Message Protocol)
·
In solaris,
-
Tracert
· Usage in windows: tracert <host>
· Lists the intermediate routers needed to reach a destination host
· Tracert is not perfect, since routes may change. However, this does not happen too often
· In solaris, this program is located in /usr/etc/traceroute
-
IPConfig
· Lists the network interfaces and IP Addresses in your computer
· In solaris, this program is located in /use/sbin/ipconfig –a
Forms of energy
used for transmissions:
- Electricity
- Radio
- Light – Laser & Infrared
- Sound
Media used for
transmission
- Copper wire
- Other metals like gold, platinum, etc are used, but less frequently because they are expensive
- Coaxial cable: Cable is in center with protection around it to prevent noise from entering the cable
- Twisted pair: To reduce electro-magnetic noise. Coaxial cables are more expensive, but have better resistance to noise
- Transmission speed in copper wire is 0.7c (c = speed of light = 3 * 108 m/s)
Radio waves
- Also called radio frequency (RF)
- Uses electro-magnetic waves
- Different frequencies used by different channels
- Frequency spectrum of each channel is limited

Each channel has a position in the spectrum, and a bandwidth
- Wide bandwidth implies more information is transmitted. For example, to transmit voice, 3hz is enough, but images need more bandwidth
- RF can be used with satellites
- Two types of satellites
· GEO (Geo-stationary Earth Orbit)
o Remain at the same point in sky
o They are about 36000Km (~ 20000miles) above Earth and around the equator
o Limited to 40-45 satellites
o Long delay (~ 0.5 seconds)
· LEO (Low Earth orbit)
o Not in the equator
o 200-400 miles above Earth
o Rotates faster than Earth (Takes about 1.5 hours per revolution)
o Need an array of satellites to cover an area
Microwave: Need a clear path
Infrared light
Laser and optical fibres: Expensive, but a lot of data can be sent
Important limits of transmission system
- Propogation delay: Time required for signal to travel across the media. Copper wire takes 0.7c
- Bandwidth: Maximum number of times per second that a signal can change. Bandwidth limits the maximum throughput