ITC8060

Network Protocol Design (ITC8061, 6 ECTS)

This module focuses on fundamental problems of network protocols and various design decisions and it's implications. This will also include security related protocols and give a better understanding why it is sometimes so hard to secure the Internet. As an exercise we will develop and implement our own protocol.

This module requires some programming skills (or a LOT of motivation to spend a LOT of time on learning algorithms and programming languages on top of the network-protocol related challenges). See also here for more detailed information.

The lectures and seminar discussions will be Tuesdays, 14.00-15.30 in room is ICT-315. Furthermore, we have ICT-401 on Tuesdays 16.00-18.00 for coding related questions, time to work on the implementation and assignments.

Overview:  
    31 Jan  Introduction  
 
Lectures:
    07 Feb  Layers         
    14 Feb  Routing        
    21 Feb  Reliability (TCP)   
    28 Feb  PGP & OTR, anonymity        
    07 Mar  Various topics (ad-hoc networks, covered channels, etc)

Protocol Design & Development:   
    14 Mar  Design 1        
    21 Mar  Design 2        
    28 Mar  Design 3        

Detailed Specification & Review: 
    04 Apr  Write Specs    
    11 Apr  "AD-review"    
    18 Apr  Final Specs    

Implementation Phase: 
    25 Apr  ** NO LECTURE ** Implementation week 
    02 May  ** NO LECTURE ** Implementation week 
 
Testing:
    09 May  Testing        
    16 May  Demo           

Reading recommendations:

• Kurose, Ross, “Computer networking: a top-down approach". Pearson.
• John Day, “Patterns in network architecture: a return to fundamentals”. Prentice Hall.
• Olivier Bonaventure. “Computer Networking: Principles, Protocols, and Practice” http://inl.info.ucl.ac.be/cnp3