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Week - 1 |
Introduction and Overview of Networks
• What is a computer network?
• Overview of OSI and TCP/IP architectures
• The rationale and significance of the layered approach
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Week - 2 |
Physical Layer and Transmission Media
• Bit transmission, analog and digital signals
• Copper cables, fiber optics, wireless media
• Modulation, bandwidth, encoding techniques
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Week - 3 |
Fundamentals of the Data Link Layer
• Framing, MAC addressing
• Error detection and correction (CRC, parity)
• Flow control, ARQ protocols
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Week - 4 |
Media Access Control (MAC) and Ethernet
• ALOHA, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA
• Ethernet and IEEE 802.3
• Differences between switch, hub, and bridge
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Week - 5 |
IP Protocol and Addressing
• IPv4 address structure, subnetting
• Introduction to IPv6
• NAT, ARP, ICMP
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Week - 6 |
Routing and Routing Protocols
• Static and dynamic routing
• Introduction to OSPF, RIP, and BGP
• Router structure and operation
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Week - 7 |
Transport Layer Fundamentals – TCP and UDP
• Connection-oriented vs connectionless services
• TCP handshake (three-way handshake)
• UDP examples and use cases
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Week - 8 |
Reliability, Flow and Congestion Control
• TCP timing and retransmission
• Windowing mechanism
• Congestion control algorithms (Estimation, AIMD)
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Week - 9 |
Application Layer Basics and Protocols
• HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, DNS
• DNS resolution and hierarchy
• IP address allocation via DHCP
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Week - 10 |
Client-Server and Peer-to-Peer Architectures
• Web server, proxy
• P2P system architectures (BitTorrent, eMule)
• Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
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Week - 11 |
Wireless Networks (Wi-Fi) and Mobile Communication
• IEEE 802.11 architecture
• Introduction to mobile networks: GSM, LTE, 5G
• Wireless access points and security (WPA2, WPA3)
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Week - 12 |
Fundamentals of Network Security
• Common attacks: MITM, sniffing, spoofing
• Encryption and secure data transmission
• VPN, firewall, IDS/IPS
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Week - 13 |
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Virtualization
• The concept of SDN
• OpenFlow, control plane vs data plane separation
• Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
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Week - 14 |
Network Management and Current Trends
• SNMP and network monitoring tools
• Using Wireshark
• IoT networks and cloud-based communication infrastructures
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