This course aims at providing students with a guided and critical overview of the communications network protocol evolution. The course will mainly focus on the TCP/IP architecture of the current Internet and on the Ethernet protocol. Finally the most recently introduced standards will be presented. Protocols (e.g., MPLS) and algorithms for traffic engineering and resilience will be introduced. Elements of event driven simulation will be provided. The concept presented in class will become topic of a large set of lab experiments and hands-on lectures.

Methods:

• Final written exam
• Midterm and endterm verifications

At the end of the course the student will gain:

- an in-depth knowledge of the lower layers of TCP/IP networking

- management and configuration of IP networks

- traffic engineering and resilience within the Internet

Means of achievements are:

- in-depth front lectures on theoretical topics

- hands-on sessions on commercial devices