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15 units · 80 lessons

Computer Networks

Computer Networks from the first idea to exam level: every lesson builds on the one before, with a worked example, a step-through diagram where it helps, a quick check and practice that adapts to what you know. Follows Kurose & Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 8th ed..

Computer Networks at a glance

What does Computer Networks cover?

Internet Structure & Switching, Delay, Loss & Throughput, Protocol Layers & Attacks, Application Layer, Transport Layer & UDP, Reliable Data Transfer, TCP, Congestion Control, IP Addressing & Subnetting, Routing Algorithms, Routing Protocols, LANs & the Link Layer and SDN, Security & Emerging Networks. It follows Kurose & Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 8th ed..

How many lessons does the Computer Networks course on Studious have?

15 units and 80 lessons, from "The Internet and protocols" to "Wireless, mobile and cloud networking". Each lesson has a worked example, a quick check and practice that adapts to what you know, and many have step-by-step diagrams.

Course outline

  1. Unit 1 · Week 1

    The Internet: edge, core and ISPs

    1. The Internet and protocols
    2. Access networks
    3. Packet switching and store-and-forward
    4. Packet switching vs circuit switching
    5. ISPs and the network of networks
  2. Unit 2 · Week 1

    Delay, loss and throughput

    1. Network performance
    2. The four sources of delay
    3. Queueing, loss and end-to-end delay
    4. End-to-end delay and traceroute
    5. Throughput and the bottleneck link
  3. Unit 3 · Week 2

    Protocol layers and attacks

    1. Protocol layers
    2. The OSI and TCP/IP models
    3. Encapsulation
    4. Malware and denial of service
    5. Networks under attack
  4. Unit 4 · Weeks 2–3

    Network applications and the Web

    1. The application layer
    2. Building network applications
    3. HTTP requests and responses
    4. Persistent and non-persistent HTTP
    5. HTTP, cookies and web caching
  5. Unit 5 · Week 3

    Email and DNS

    1. Electronic mail
    2. Email: SMTP, POP3 and IMAP
    3. Inside an SMTP conversation
    4. DNS: the Internet's directory
    5. DNS lookups step by step
    6. DNS records
  6. Unit 6 · Week 4

    P2P, video streaming and CDNs

    1. Distributing content to many users
    2. Peer-to-peer file distribution
    3. BitTorrent
    4. Streaming video with DASH
    5. Video streaming and CDNs
  7. Unit 7 · Week 5

    Transport layer basics and UDP

    1. The transport layer
    2. Ports and sockets
    3. Transport services, multiplexing and demultiplexing
    4. UDP: a bare-bones transport
    5. UDP and the Internet checksum
  8. Unit 8 · Week 6

    Reliable data transfer

    1. Reliable delivery over a lossy network
    2. Building a reliable channel
    3. Stop-and-wait and timeouts
    4. Sliding windows
    5. Pipelining: Go-Back-N and Selective Repeat
  9. Unit 9 · Week 7

    TCP: connection-oriented transport

    1. TCP: a reliable byte stream
    2. TCP segments, sequence numbers and the handshake
    3. Opening and closing a TCP connection
    4. TCP timeouts and fast retransmit
    5. TCP timeouts, fast retransmit and flow control
  10. Unit 10 · Week 8

    Congestion control

    1. Network congestion
    2. Causes of congestion
    3. The congestion window
    4. TCP congestion control: slow start and AIMD
    5. Fast recovery and the AIMD sawtooth
  11. Unit 11 · Week 9

    The network layer and IP addressing

    1. The network layer
    2. Forwarding, routing and inside a router
    3. IPv4 addresses, CIDR and IPv6
    4. IPv6 and tunnelling
    5. Subnetting
  12. Unit 12 · Week 10

    Routing algorithms

    1. Routing: finding the least-cost path
    2. Link state: Dijkstra's algorithm
    3. Distance vector: Bellman-Ford
    4. Distance vectors converging
    5. Count-to-infinity and poisoned reverse
    6. Link state vs distance vector
  13. Unit 13 · Weeks 11–12

    Routing protocols in practice

    1. Autonomous systems: routing at Internet scale
    2. RIP: counting hops
    3. OSPF: link state inside an AS
    4. Intra-AS routing: RIP, OSPF and EIGRP
    5. Inter-AS routing: BGP
    6. BGP route selection and policy
  14. Unit 14 · Weeks 13–14

    LANs and the data link layer

    1. The link layer: one hop at a time
    2. LAN, MAN, WAN and switching
    3. Self-learning switches
    4. Ethernet, MAC addresses, ARP and VLANs
    5. VLANs: several LANs on one switch
    6. Error detection and correction
  15. Unit 15 · Weeks 15–16

    SDN, security and emerging networks

    1. Modern networks: control, protection and mobility
    2. Software-defined networking
    3. SDN and ICMP
    4. NAT: many devices, one public address
    5. Middleboxes and network security basics
    6. Wireless, mobile and cloud networking

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