This course studies networking fundamentals including LANS, MANS, WANS, the Internet, intranets, extranets and the WWW, with the focus being the Internet. The topics covered include: hardware, software, network topologies, architecture and protocols; network and web applications; website design and construction; information architecture; standards; privacy, security, firewalls and reliability; systems integration; network monitoring and management; and professional ethics and social issues.

At the end of this course, the student will be able to do the following:

These objectives are explained by considering possible assignment topics:

1. Describe network topologies and architectures, LANS and WANS.
2. Describe the TCP/IP stack and the ISO protocol suite. Compare and contrast the two.
3. Describe how telnet and mail work.
4. Describe the different types of web pages and how they are structured. Create web pages using HTML.
5. Describe how the http protocol works. Describe cookies, proxies, server performance, caching, and state management.
6. Describe mobile code, its advantages and where it can be used.
7. Describe the important issues in Web design.
8. Describe what standards are and why they are useful.
9. Understand Web client-side and server-side programming
10. Use the above concepts to design an internet based system for use in a bank, library, etc. Explain the model and how it works.
11. Understand the basic IT professional ethics and write an essay about this

Assignments (30%); Quizzes(10%); Final Exam (60%)

Thirty one-hour lectures and six two-hour tutorial/laboratory sessions

COMP1100 or COMP1730 or COMP1710; and 6 units of 1000-level MATH/STAT courses

COMP3400

Prescribed Text Book

Fitzerald, J. and Dennis, A. Business Data Communication and Networking, 10th edition, John Wiley, 2009.

Recommended Reading

Tanenbaum, A.S. Computer Networks, 4th edition, Prentice-Hall, 2002.