Topic outline

  • The first lecture will be held on January 7, 2019. We will have two contact sessions per week. Contact sessions can be lectures or exercise sessions, depending on the schedule of the course. Please note that it is mandatory to attend the contact sessions. 

    Course Content:


    Todays computing systems are distributed and interconnected by fixed and wireless networks. Computers and cloud services are connected via the internet either fixed or wirelessly. Mobile and on-body devices connect, for instance,via Bluetooth to smartphones, which themselves maintain connectivity via cellular networks (e.g. fifth generation’5G’ systems). In addition, applications like the Industrial Internet or connected vehicles constitute novel, demanding challenges for the scalability and delay and throughput characteristics of future networking technology. At the same time, security gains increasing importance in such networks. 

    The course provides a theoretical and practical basis for computer networking. Besides basic networking principles, the course provides case studies of network protocols at each layer of the OSI model. Examples include HTTP and TCP/IP for data center networking, 5G and 802.11.x for vehicular networking, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy for short-distance device-to-device communication and symmetric and asymmetric encryption protocols as well as VPN for secure communications. In addition, the course will cover security in modern communication networks. The issue is addressed by introducing symmetric and asymmetric encryption protocols, PGP, VPN and Firewalls.


    Notebooks:

    We will use an open general-purpose computer networking textbook in the first half of the course. You can find the book titled "An introduction to computer networks" online.  


    Course Assistants:

    Quddus Tahmid     tahmid.quddus(at)aalto.fi 

    Jesus Ly           jesus.ly(at)aalto.fi