CS 420/520: Data Communication

Welcome to CS420/520 Data Communication. This course is offered in the Spring Semester 2012 at the University of Idaho in Moscow. and is also available though Engineering Outreach for off-campus students. The course is taught by Dr. Axel Krings.

This web-page contains information about the course, e.g. syllabus, class notes, pointers to interesting places etc. Material can be down-loaded in pdf (or postscript) format, and will be made available in the updated form as the class goes on. To get an idea of what this class is about, take a look at 2010 semesters page. However, materials and topics constantly change, and this class will be no exception. If you have comments, please let me know.

Engineering Outreach students, there are several things you should know. First of all, if you are trying to contact me, you can call 800-824-2889 ext. 4078 (toll free). Please download the class material from the web page. Engineering Outreach students need to have web access with ssh capability to local workstations.

Course description: this course covers the concepts and terminology of data communications, electrical interfaces, data transmission, protocols, local area networks, wide area networks, internetworking, network management, architectures, transmission alternatives, as well as some regulatory issues. Please refer to the Complete CS420/520 Class Handouts of the Spring 2010 semester page for the sequence of topics. Note: This class has Operating Systems and Computer Organization and Architecture as prereq. In a 400/500 level computer science class I expect working knowledge of unix and MS operating systems as well as programming ability.

• Contact information:
  • Axel Krings (PhD), JEB 320,
  • Phone: 208-885-4078, fax: 208-885-9052.
  • Engineering outreach students: dial toll free 800-824-2889 ext 4078
  • Mailing address: Engineering Outreach, PO Box 441014, Moscow, Idaho 83844-1014.
  • Office Hours: (see here)
  • 9:30-10:20, JEB25.

• Spring 2012 Term Class Handouts:
  • The handouts are ordered by sequence numbers and the material covered in the lectures are indicated next to the date. Specifically, the numbers in parentheses indicate the slides covered during class, i.e., [a/b-c/d] indicates that the material covered is from sequence a (slide b) to sequence c (to slide d).
  • If there are any problems with accessing the handouts, please let me know (email, phone, smoke signs, drums, ...)!
  • Corrections: some slides may contain formatting errors, typos etc. which have been addressed in class, but have not been reflected in the notes posted here.
  • The slides below are partially adapted from the instruction material supplied by the publisher of the text, which was provided by Lawrie Brown, UNSW@ADFA.
  • Syllabus.

  • Lecture 1 (01/11/12): [1/01-1/07] Sequence 1, (pdf), : Introduction
  • Lecture 2 (01/13/12): [1/08-2/07] Sequence 2, (pdf), : Basic principles: LAN, Circuit switching, packet switching, ATM, network configurations
  • MLK Day (01/16/12): UI is closed
  • Lecture 3 (01/18/12): [2/08-2/30] Protocol architectures, protocol stacks
  • Lecture 4 (01/20/12): [2/31-2/39] Sequence 3, (pdf), : TCP/IP protocol stack, [Reading assignment: RFC1180 - TCP/IP tutorial]
  • UPDATE: since the UI opening is delayed to 10:00 am we are canceling class today (1/20/2012). Please study the material scheduled for Lecture 4 with focus on the OSI reference model. I will address questions during the next lecture, which will start with Sequence 3.
  • Lecture 5 (01/23/12): [3/01-3/13] Physical layer terminology
  • Lecture 6 (01/25/12): [3/14-3/34] Fourier analysis, Signal representation, attenuation, analog and digital signals and transmission
  • Lecture 7 (01/27/12): [3/35-3/45] Attenuation, distortion, noise, NEXT canceling, Nyquist and Shannon formulas Thermal noise, signal delay
  • Lecture 8 (01/30/12): [3/46-3/54] Sequence 4, (pdf), : Noise and its impacts
  • Lecture 9 (02/01/12): [4/01-4/28] Sequence 5, (pdf), : Transmission media basics, twisted pair, Coaxial cable,
  • NOTE: you can access the data communication forum via https://forums.cs.uidaho.edu/ (you will get a certificate warning though)
  • Lecture 10 (02/03/12): [4/29-5/05] optical fiber, Wireless transmission (antennas, radiation pattern, parabolic reflection, microwave, satellite microwave, broadcast radio, infrared, wave propagation), Signal encoding background
  • Lecture 11 (02/06/12): [5/06-5/22] Signal encoding techniques, Digital Data -Digital Signals (NRZ, Bipolar AMI, Pseudoternary, Mancester, Diff. Manchester)
  • Lecture 12 (02/08/12): [5/23-5/32] Manchester cont., B8ZS and HDB3
  • Lecture 13 (02/10/12): [5/33-5/57] Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), FSK, PSK, Spread Spectrum,... Digital Data - Analog Signal cont. (Binary FSK, Multiple FSK, QPSK, OQPSK, QAM)

  • upcoming sequences: Sequence 6, (pdf), :

  • Final Exam: Thursday, May 10, 2012, 10:00-12:00

  • CS420/520 Homeworks/Exams:
    • HW1.pdf
    • HW2.pdf

  • CS420/520 old exam questions:
    • Exam 1 (10), (08)

  • Interesting Links: Pointers to Research Areas.