SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
CMNS 458-4 / CMNS 856-5

Information Technology Project Group(458) / Graduate Seminar(856)
NETWORKS NOW AND FUTURE: FROM ETHERNET TO INTERPLANETARY NETWORKS

Prerequisites:

Undergrads: At least 75 credit hours, and permission of instructor. Graduate students only require permission of instructor.
An SFU email account is required. Material not introduced during lectures will be available online. An email account, and access to the Web will be essential. A printer would be a good idea!

First meeting: Monday 8 January 2001, at 1:30 p.m. at Harbour Centre, room 1535. Subsequent classes will be scheduled to fit particiants’ timetables.

Overview:

This course is intended to introduce students with non-technical backgrounds to some of the basic technical concepts and terminology surrounding the broad range of present network technologies, providing a basic understanding of how these technologies work and are applied in the modern Internet world. In addition, the course will introduce the concepts behind the Next Generation Internet, leading to mobile networks and, eventually, networks spanning our Solar System and beyond.
The course will take a non-technical approach, concentrating on the building blocks of network systems, and the implications of their operation, and not on the technical details of their implementation. The aim is to provide an insight into the exciting possibilities for modern networking technology, and to allow the student to build an understanding of the issues involved in the building of globally networked communities.

Concepts and technologies to be introduced include:

- Basics of network communication
- Traditional wire-based networks: copper to fibre-optics
- Wireless networks
- Global networking: TCP/IP and ATM systems
- Routing, nameservers, and other network infrastructure
- Mobile networks: the Wireless Web, Voice Web, Mobile IP, and beyond
- Global collaborative networking
- Communicating via spacecraft
- Communicating on another planet, and with another planet
- Appropriate network technologies for the global community

Required Text:

None.

Evaluation:

(subject to confirmation in first week of classes)
Participation (presentation of final assignment): 20%
Project Proposal: 30%
Term Project: 50%

The school expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations Section).