Principles of Data Communications Networks
605.471

Course Description
This course provides an introduction to the field of data communications and computer networks. The course covers the principles of data communications, data transmission concepts, communications equipment, circuit control and line sharing techniques, physical and data link layer protocols, common carrier services and data networks, and the mathematical techniques used for network design and analysis. Potential topics include analog and digital signaling; channel capacity, synchronous and asynchronous transmission, interface standards; FDM, TDM, and STDM multiplexing techniques; inverse multiplexing; analog transmission; the V series modems standards including V.34 and the new V.90 56K standard, Trellis coding modulation; digital transmission; PCM encoding and T1/T3 transmission circuits; error detection and error correction techniques; half and full duplex data link layer protocols; X-Modem file transfer protocol; V.42 modem error correction protocol; Huffman coding and the MNP5 and V.42bis data compression algorithms; common carrier services, facilities and regulatory requirements; circuit, message, packet and cell switching techniques; common carrier network offerings; Kruskal, Esau-Williams, and Add/Drop network design algorithms; TRIB, reliability and availability, and queuing analysis topology optimization techniques; and circuit costing.

Additional Course Information

Syllabus

1. Fundamentals of Data Communications Networks: Analog and Digital Signaling
2. Common Carrier Services and Facilities: (a) Carriers and Basic Service Offerings; (b) Carrier Transmission Facilities
3. Data Transmission: (a) Basics; (b) Analog Transmission; (c) Digital Transmission (d) Physical Interfaces
4. Line Sharing: (a) Circuit Sharing Techniques; (b) Communications Equipment
5. Line Sharing (cont.): Communications Equipment (cont.)
6. Line Control: (a) Error Detection; (b) ARQ Error Correction
7. Line Control (cont.): (a) Line Utilization; (b) Forward Error Correction (FEC)
8. Data Link Protocols: (a) Half Duplex; (b) Full Duplex (c) File Transfer Protocols (d) Modem Error Correction Protocols
9. Data Link Protocols (cont.): Data Compression
10. Common Carrier Networks: (a) Switching Techniques; (b) High Speed Data Networks
11. Network Design: Centralized Topology Design
12. Network Design (cont.): Response Time
13. Network Design (cont.): Network Effectiveness
14. Network Design (cont.): (a) Circuit Costing; (b) Regulatory Environment

Instructor
Richard J. Nieporent, Ph.D., has 27 years of experience in the analysis, design, and development of communications networks for both military and civilian agencies. He is an expert on local and wide area networks, internetworking, network protocols, and the networking standards developed by ISO, ITU-T, IEEE and IETF standards organizations. Dr. Nieporent is currently a Senior Principal Engineer with the MITRE Corporation. He has been involved with the design and development of long haul, tactical, packet switching, and local area networks for a number of organizations including the Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration, DIA, NSA, DOD, DISA, and the Army. As a Project Leader for the NSA Computer-to-Computer work program, Dr. Nieporent is responsible for the design and development of real-time protocol processing and protocol analysis systems. In addition, he has helped specify the Army Tactical Communications Control System (ATCCS) network architecture, the NSA computer-to-computer architecture, and the SIGINT community network architecture. Dr. Nieporent is a senior adjunct faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University graduate school of engineering, where he has taught courses in Principles of Data Communication Networks, Computer Network Architectures and Protocols, and Local Area Networks for the past 18 years. Additionally, is a member of the computer science program committee for the Whiting School of Engineering Part-Time Programs, and is the advisor for the master's degree telecommunications concentration in computer science. Dr. Nieporent was a member of the ANSI X3T5 Standards Committee that was responsible for the US contribution to the development of the OSI Reference Model and upper layer protocols and was a member of the NATO TSGCEE that worked on the development of militarized OSI standards. as well as serving as a technical representative to the ATCCS Technical Interoperability Working Group. He has published and delivered papers on networking at conferences and seminars, and he has developed and taught short courses on communications and networking for the government and private industry.

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Computer Lab Requirements
No specific computer requirements are necessary for this course.

Textbook
Data Communications, Computer Networks, and Open Systems, 4th Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1996 by Fred Halsall

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updated May 1999