Terminology

broadcast multicast unicast bus network router
host subnet protocol interface service
primitives unacknowledged datagram acknowledged datagram request-reply acknowledged connection-oriented
ISO ANSI ITU IETF bandwidth
voice-grade line twisted pair cat 3 cat 5 UTP
coaxial cable fiber optic cable frequency wavelength ISM band
PSTN central office toll office local loop trunk
attenuation distortion noise baud symbol
full duplex half duplex simplex slotted time POTS
handoff cell channel header trailer
codeword parity switch bridge repeater
piconet scatternet multipath fading ad hoc networking signal-to-noise ratio
multimode fiber single-mode fiber chromatic dispersion synchronous asynchronous

Concepts

Chapter 1

Client-server model vs peer-to-peer model
Broadcast networks vs point-to-point networks
LANs, WANs, internetworks, Internet
Connection-oriented vs connectionless
Abstract protocol hierarchies - layering, protocol stack, architecture, addressing, flow control, error control, multiplexing, demultiplexing
OSI reference model - layer organization and purpose, issues (1.4.4)
TCP/IP reference model - layer organization and purpose, why widely used

Chapter 2

Fourier series - concentrate on why the mathematical theory is important to signal quality
Nyquist theorem and Shannon's Law
Wired media - strengths and weaknesses of each type
Wireless media - EM spectrum, frequency hopping spread spectrum, direct sequence spread spectrum
Public telephone network - overall structure, limitations of local loop
Modems - amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, phase modulation, constellation diagrams, QPSK, QAM, TCM
DSL - difference in local loop, DMT channels
Trunks - multiplexing, FDM, WDM, TDM, T1, SONET/OC-1
Switching - circuit switching, message switching, packet switching
Mobile phones - differences between AMPS/D-AMPS, GSM, CDMA

Chapter 3

Services - unacknowledged datagram, acknowledged datagram, acknowledged connection-oriented
Framing - header, trailer, character count, flag bytes with byte stuffing, flag bits with bit stuffing
Error control and flow control
Error correcting codes - Hamming distance, distances required to detect/correct errors, Hamming code
Error detecting codes - CRC checksum
Data link protocols - piggybacked ack, stop-and-wait, PAR, sliding window go back N, sliding window selective repeat
PPP - see below under Important Protocols

Chapter 4

Channel allocation problem - static vs dynamic, strengths and weaknesses
CSMA protocols - persistent and non-persistent CSMA, CSMA/CD, contention slots
Wireless protocols - hidden station problem and exposed station problem, how MACA/MACAW address these problems
Ethernet - see below under Important Protocols
LLC - position of LLC in stack, services provided by LLC
802.11 - see below under Important Protocols
Bluetooth - not just data link protocol, piconet architecture, redundancy bits
Switching - bridges, issues bridging from 802.x to 802.y, routing decision, learning MAC-line associations, spanning tree bridges
Differences between bridges, routers, hubs, switches, repeaters

Lab Concepts

Connecting over Internet - difference between name lookup failure and failure to connect when name lookup succeeded
Name lookup failure - using dig and ping to determine source of issue
Connection failure - using ping and traceroute to determine source of issue
Basic socket programming - socket(), bind(), getsockname(), connect(), listen(), send(), recv()
Signals - what are signals, how and why are they masked
Signal handlers - what is the purpose of signal handlers and how are they used
select() - what is the purpose of select() and how is it used

Important Protocols

Ethernet

Multidrop cables vs hubs/switches (point-to-point cables)
Cable length - max length per segment, why important with CSMA/CD
Manchester encoding and differential Manchester encoding
Frames - format, why a minimum length frame
Binary exponential backoff algorithm
Collision domains
Switches - how affects collision domains
Fast ethernet - why uses different encoding schemes, negociation with 10Mbps
Gigabit ethernet - also why uses different encoding schemes, issues with cable and frame lengths in half duplex mode

PPP

Three features - framing method, LCP, NCP
Basic lifecycle of a dial-up connection
Frame format

802.11

Physical layer - 3 high bandwidth transmission techniques
PCF mode - base station, beacon frame, polling
DCF mode - CSMA/CA
Frame - structure, how varies from Ethernet and PPP
Services - 9 services for LANs to provide