ITS 406/MSIS 567 Data Communications
Announcements
The final exam will be comprehensive and cover
chapters 1 - 9 of the
text. The exam
will be held during the class period on April 30th. We will have a brief period at the beginning
of class where you may ask questions on any of the topics covered during the
semester. The duration of the class
period will be used for the exam.
Review Material for the
Final Exam
The exam on April 16th will cover Chapters
5 - 8 in the text.
We will be doing laboratory exercises that design and
test various network configurations during the course of the semester. The laboratories utilize a simulation tool
that allows the student to build and test networks that are comprised of
various commercially available products.
A free academic version of the tool is available to students.
Go to the following link: OPNet Simulation Tool
(home page) and select the link to IT Guru Academic Edition in the orange
colored list on the left side of the page.
In the box on the lower right side of the page under New Users, select Download and Register and
follow the subsequent instructions. When
the registration process is completed, you will receive a password in your
e-mail that will enable you to download the simulation tool. When you have downloaded the tool there is a
subsequent registration step that you will be directed to follow when you run
IT Guru for the first time. The process
is straightforward. Note! You will need to have
Adobe Reader on your system when you start IT Guru and run through the tutorial
on the Help menu.
You should also download the laboratory materials that make
use of this simulation tool and supplement the text for this course. Go to the previous link: OPNet Simulation Tool
(home page)
select the link Teaching
with OPNET from the orange colored list. On the next page, select Featured Textbooks and Lab
Materials on the orange list.
Find the text for this course listed on the next page and link to online
lab manual. The links to
download all 7 lab manual and lab files at once does not seem to work so
download each of the 7 labs individually and save each in a directory of your
choice. Next download the project files
individually. Here are the recommended
download instructions:
Download and Install
Lab Files
1.
Click on the link for all the labs together or individual labs.
2.
Save the zip file to the desktop when asked.
3.
Double-click the zip file and extract the files to a directory
on the desktop.
4.
To add the files to IT Guru, open OPNET IT Guru Academic
Edition.
5.
Select File/Model Files/Add Model Directory.
6.
Select the directory where you unzipped the lab files (on the
desktop) and click OK.
7.
In the Add to Model Directories window select Include Subdirectories.
You may substitute your own
directory choice for desktop, but follow the instructions from step 4 to add
project models to your Model Directory.
Additional student resources are available at http://www.prenhall.com/panko/,
(Companion Website) but they seem to be of limited value other than coaching
you how to prepare and study for exams.
Exams
First Exam -- February 27
(Covers material from first 4 Chapters of text and lecture notes)
Lecture Notes
Lecture
# 2 -- Network Standards
Lecture
# 3 -- The Physical Layer
Lecture # 6 -- Telecommunications
Lecture # 7 -- Wide Area Networks
Lecture # 11 -- Application Layer
Homework Assignments
Homework
# 1 -- Due January 23
Homework
# 2 -- Due January 30
Homework
# 3 -- Due February 6
Homework # 4 -- Due February 13 (due now on Feb. 20)