The objective of this course is gain an understanding of the concepts and techniques that have been used to design and implement the TCP/IP Internet and to understand the issues that are driving the development of new protocols to broaden and enhance the operation of the Internet. The Internet is currently a collection of autonomous systems that make use of routing technology to transport datagrams between hosts using an unreliable, best-effort service. A transport protocol is implemented in the hosts to provide a reliable stream service on top of the unreliable datagram service.

With the growth in the number of hosts and routers, and the development of new real-time applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP), the TCP/IP operational paradigm is no longer valid. Changes must be made in the infrastructure, operation, and protocols of the Internet to provide the performance and services needed for real-time applications.

This course will first examine the current architecture and operation of the Internet. The classful addressing concept will be introduced and the mapping of Internet addresses to physical addresses will be discussed. The basic protocols IP, ICMP, UDP, and TCP, and IP routing will be examined and the extensions that have been made to the addressing paradigm, including subnet addressing, classless addressing, and network address translation, will be described.

The course will next examine the performance enhancements being developed to provide quality of service (QoS) over the Internet and to provide faster routing thought the use of IP switching techniques. In addition, techniques for providing musticasting and mobility over the Internet will be discussed. Security considerations will be addressed through the development of Virtual Private Networks and the use of IP Security (IPSec) protocols. The next generation IP protocol (IPv6) will be introduced, and the changes and enhancements to the IP protocol operation and to the addressing architecure will be discussed in-detail. Finally, the development of the Voice over IP (VoIP) application and the convergence of circuit switching and packet switching will be discussed.