Internet

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: ALFIO LOMBARDO

Expected Learning Outcomes

In relation to Dublin Descriptor 1 (Knowledge and Understanding), the course aims to equip students with the ability to identify issues inherent in the design of an internet system, to understand in detail the mechanisms of internetworking, the architecture and suite of TCP/IP protocols, the communication paradigms currently in use for Quality of Service (QoS) management, security, as well as the main transport protocols used for different applications.

In relation to Dublin Descriptor 2 (Ability to apply knowledge and understanding), the course aims to equip students with the ability to configure the basic functions of a router/switch and to design and configure an intranet.

In relation to Descriptors 3 (Autonomy of judgment), 4 (Communication skills), and 5 (Learning skills) of Dublin, students will acquire the ability to rationally communicate their knowledge on the topics covered in the course, with mastery of the specialized vocabulary of the sector. they will also acquire the ability to independently read standards and scientific literature in the sector, in order to keep up to date with the rapid developments in Internet technologies.

Course Structure

The course consists of lectures and exercises the latter held in the CDLM laboratory at the Engineering Technological Pole in via Santa Sofia

In case of emergency, lectures will be provided through an appropriate computer platform.
The final exam could be eventually done remotely in case of COVID contingency.

Required Prerequisites

Knowledge of data transmission techniques, LAN networks

Attendance of Lessons

Highly recommended, lab experiences  mandatory

Detailed Course Content

  1. Underlying network technologies

Background on physical interfaces and  IEEE 802.11 standards

Laboratory 1.: network cabling

Cfu:  0,5

2: Internetworking:

Forwarding e routing techniques,; transparent bridging, IP addressing, (*)

Subnetworking, private addresses, NAT, PAT; VLAN (*)

Address rsolution (ARP,  BootTP, DHCP) (*)  ;

 IP protocols (IPv4, cenni IPv6) Error reporting in  Internet (ICMP) ; (*)

routing architectures and protocols (RIP, OSPF, BGP) (*)

Laboratory 2. : routers/switchs configuration, VLAN, routing

Cfu 2,5  

books: 

- Mario Baldi, Pietro Nicoletti: Internetworking (Italiano/English)

or

 Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley (Italiano/Inglese)

3. Network security

Network security issues

Network attacks. Principles of cryptography. Authentication schemes.

IpSec protocol

Cfu 0,75

book:

 Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley (Italiano/Inglese)

4.QoS management  in IP networks:

Classification, CAC,  traffic control, Scheduling, queue management,
 DiffServ model

Cfu: 1

book:

Tiziano Tofoni: MPLS: Fondamenti e applicazioni alle reti IP  (Italiano/Enghish)

5. MPLS:

Forwarding Equivalent Class, Label Switched Router, Tabelle di routing (LIB, NHLFE,ILM), Label management, Label Switched Path,   FEC/Etichette distribution(Label Distribution Protocol), Virtual Private Networks (VPN) ,  MPLS_Diff SERV integration, Traffic Engineering ; RSVP-TE (*);

Laboratory 3: MPLS Network configuration and QoS Network management facilities


Cfu 1,75

book:Tiziano Tofoni: MPLS: Fondamenti e applicazioni alle reti IP  (Italiano/Enghish)

 6.User Layer: Application and Transport protocols  Design of a distributed Application process: Interaction model (client-server vs P2P), application protocol definition.

Underlayng interface: socket

 

Transport layer facilities;

TCP functionalities and protocol

UDP functionalities and protocol

 

Additional transport facilities:

RTP/RTCP functionalities and protocol

TLS functionalities and protocol

 

Quic functionalities and  protocol

 

Real time communication facilities:

the WebRTP framework

 Cfu 2,25

book:

 Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley (Italiano/Inglese)

 * minimum contents requirements

 Students in the 2020-21 cohort who have the 6-credit INTERNET course in their study plan are exempt from the topics in sections 

1. Underlying network technologies

6. User Layer: Application and Transport protocols

Textbook Information

1 J. Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley (Italiano/Inglese)

2 Mario Baldi, Pietro Nicoletti: Internetworking (Italiano/English)

3 Tiziano Tofoni: MPLS: Fondamenti e applicazioni alle reti IP  (Italiano/Enghish)

Slides; lecture notes


Course Planning

 SubjectsText References
1InternetworkingMario Baldi, P. Nicoletti: InternetworkingorJ. Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley ; 
2Network securityJ. Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley
3QoS in IP networksTiziano Tofoni: MPLS: Fondamenti e applicazioni alle reti IP (En)
4MPLSTiziano Tofoni: MPLS: Fondamenti e applicazioni alle reti IP (En)
5User Layer: Application and Transport protocolsJ. Kurose, K. Ross: Computer Networking, Addison-Wesley

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

The course alternates between theoretical topics and laboratory experiments which, step by step, build an MPLS-based network with quality management to support applications with different performance requirements.

Ongoing assessment no. 1 on topics 1 and 2 with exam value: the ongoing assessment consists of a series of open-ended questions and the design and configuration of an internet network (Laboratory no. 2).

Oral examination

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

resolving TCP/IP architecture addresses, MPLS, traffic engineering, TCP protocol, network/application security and cryptographic algorithms