Internet

Objectives

The course aims to provide students with the knowledge and methodological skills required to understand, design, configure, and analyse Internet-based communication systems. Particular attention is devoted to Internetworking mechanisms, the TCP/IP architecture and protocol suite, IP routing and addressing, network security, Quality of Service (QoS), MPLS technologies, and transport and application protocols.

The course combines theoretical lectures with practical laboratory activities. The laboratory sessions are intended to support the acquisition of practical skills in the configuration of routers and switches, VLANs and routing, as well as in the configuration of MPLS-based networks and QoS mechanisms.

The course also introduces students to the main communication paradigms and transport protocols used by distributed applications, including TCP, UDP, RTP/RTCP, TLS and QUIC, together with the socket interface and real-time communication facilities.

Knowledge and understanding

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

* Understand the theoretical principles of telecommunications systems and digital networks and describe the main mechanisms and architectures underlying Internet communication systems; moreover students will be able to  explain the principles of Internetworking and the TCP/IP architecture;

* Understand the architectures, protocols and services of IP-based Internet networks, that is: understand IP addressing, subnetting, NAT/PAT, VLANs and address-resolution mechanisms; describe the main IP routing architectures and protocols, including RIP, OSPF and BGP; explain the main principles and mechanisms of network security, cryptography and authentication;

* Understand methodologies for managing quality of service (QoS) and security in IP networks, including traffic classification, admission control, scheduling and queue management, MPLS forwarding, label distribution, LSPs, VPNs and Traffic Engineering;

Applying knowledge and understanding

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

* design wired and wireless telecommunications networks and configure the basic functionalities of routers, switches and VLANs;

* analyse issues relating to security, quality of service (QoS) and traffic management by appropriately configuringIP_Sec tunnels,   MPLS-based network and QoS mechanisms through laboratory activities;

Making judgements

By the end of the course, students will be able to evaluate and interprete experimental data from laboratories  and in particular  analyse network design and configuration problems,  identify appropriate solutions on the basis of the mechanisms and protocols introduced during the course.

Communication skills

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

*  draft technical reports and project documentation   clearly describing the principles, mechanisms and configuration choices associated with the protocols and technologies

*  work in a team and present experimental results, discuss Internet networking topics  using appropriate technical terminology 

Learning skills

By the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to independently study technical documentation, standards and scientific literature related to Internet technologies.

This ability will support continuous learning in a technological field characterised by rapid evolution and will enable students to update their knowledge beyond the specific topics covered during the course.

The course consists of lectures (49 hours, corresponding to 7 cfu) and practical laboratory sessions (30 hours, corresponding to 2 cfu). Laboratory activities are carried out in the laboratory of the Master's Degree Programme at the "Polo Tecnologico" Centre in Via Santa Sofia.

The practical activities are integrated with the theoretical topics and are aimed at progressively developing practical skills in network configuration. In particular, the laboratory activities include network cabling, router and switch configuration, VLANs and routing, and the configuration of an MPLS-based network with QoS management.

Should the course be delivered in blended or distance-learning mode, the necessary changes may be introduced with respect to the arrangements described above, while maintaining compliance with the programme specified in this syllabus.

Essential knowledge

Students are expected to have prior knowledge of:

• Data Transmission Techniques;
• LAN networks.

Important knowledge

·       Ethernet technology

Useful knowledge

·       Programming capabilities

Attendance of lectures is strongly recommended.

Attendance of the laboratory activities is mandatory.

Part 1: Internetworking — 30 hours

 Lectures (15 hours)

* Background on physical interfaces, IEEE 802.11 standards.

* Forwarding and routing techniques.

* Transparent bridging.

* IP addressing.

* Subnetting.

* Private addresses.

* NAT and PAT.

* VLANs.

* Address resolution: ARP, BOOTP and DHCP.

* IP protocols: IPv4 and introductory concepts of IPv6.

* Error reporting in the Internet: ICMP.

* Routing architectures and protocols: RIP, OSPF and BGP.

 Laboratory (15 hours)

* Network cabling.

* Router and switch configuration.

* VLAN configuration.

* Routing configuration.

Part 2: Network Security — 14 hours

 Lectures (10 hours)

* Network security issues.

* Principles of cryptography.

* Authentication schemes.

* IPsec protocol.

 Laboratory (4 hours)

* IP_Sec tunnel configuration.

Part 3: QoS Management in IP Networks — 3 hours

 Lectures (3hours)

* Traffic classification.

* Connection Admission Control (CAC).

* Traffic control.

* Scheduling.

* Queue management.

* Integrated Services (IntServ) model.

* Differentiated Services (DiffServ) model.

Part 4: MPLS — 23 hours

 Lectures (12 hours)

* Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FEC).

* Label Switched Routers (LSR).

* Routing and forwarding tables: LIB, NHLFE and ILM.

* Label management.

* Label Switched Paths (LSP).

* FEC/label distribution and Label Distribution Protocol (LDP).

* Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

* MPLS–DiffServ integration.

* Traffic Engineering.

* RSVP-TE.

 Laboratory  (11 hours)

* MPLS network configuration.

* QoS configuration and management.

Part 5: User Layer — Application and Transport Protocols — 9 hours

 Lectures (9 hours)

* Interaction models: client-server and peer-to-peer (P2P).

* Socket interface.

* Basic Transport-layer functionalities: TCP/UDP functionalities 

* Advanced Transport-layer functionalities: RTP/RTCP, TLS, QUIC, functionalities 

* The WebRTP framework.

Learning Assessment Procedures

The learning assessment combines theoretical knowledge with the practical skills developed during the laboratory activities.

A mid-term assessment is carried out on the topics covered in Part 1. The assessment includes laboratory projects carried out partly during class and completed independently by the student, together with a set of open-ended questions.

The final assessment consists of an oral examination and laboratory projects concerning the MPLS and QoS activities. The laboratory projects are carried out partly during class and completed independently by the students.

The laboratory activities progressively lead to the implementation of an MPLS-based network with QoS management, supporting applications characterised by different performance requirements.

Examples of topics that may be addressed during the assessment include:

* resolution of addresses in the TCP/IP architecture;

* IP addressing and subnetting;

* MPLS architecture and forwarding mechanisms;

* Traffic Engineering;

* TCP protocol and its evolutions;

* network and application security;

* cryptographic algorithms.