The course presents the main technologies, protocols and algorithms currently used in local area networks, particularly with respect to wired infrastructures. In addition, it introduces the main technologies used in the growing field of datacenters, namely storage area networks, datacenter technologies and topologies, virtualization, high performance computing.
Relevance is also given to lab exercises, which aim at practicing with the presented topics.
The course is taught in Italian, although most of the documentation is in English.
This course is available to all Computer Engineering (master-level degree) students at Politecnico di Torino. This site refers to Academic Year 2022/2023.
General knowledge about computer networks. Detailed knowledge about the IP protocol and the most important protocols of the TCP/IP suite. Capability to design IP networks and to manage static routing. General understanding of data-link network technologies, in particular Ethernet. Capability to analyze network traffic, particularly with respect to the most important protocols of the TCP/IP suite.
The course is taught by Fulvio Risso and Guido Marchetto.
Lectures of this class are registered and made available on the official teaching portal at Politecnico di Torino. Recordings are available only to enrolled students. Recording are made in a “best effort” way; some class recordings may not be available due to technical problems (e.g., a crash in professor's laptop) or for copyright problems (e.g., seminars given from non-POLITO people).
To facilitate the interactions among students, and from students and professors, we created a dedicated Slack workspace. Students are kindly invited to join at https://landc-polito.slack.com/join/signup .
Starting from this academic year, we decided to use the official POLITO calendar, available on the PolitoApp. Please check the proper section in that application to show the week-by-week calendar.
This course includes multiple labs, focusing on the most important topics presented in the lectures. Lab includes not only configuration, but also fault generation and the dynamic analysis of the given protocol with respect to that fault. This is needed to understand how protocols react to external solicitations.
In addition, several homework are available on the most important topics of the course.
Labs and homework are optional but strongly encouraged. In our experience, homework and labs represent a key helper to pass the exam. Please note that the exam often includes some questions related to the lab exercises.
Students with high average mark (>27/30) can replace the exam with a special project. The project can focus either on research topics, or some teaching support activities. In most cases we require a short presentation (30 mins) in which the student discusses the achieved results.
Topics:
Novel storage technologies for data centers: NVMe/TCP, RoCE, RDMA.
Deploying campus-wide technologies for WiFi access: architecture, protocols.
Exam usually includes a variable mix of exercises, open-answer questions, and closed-answer questions. The texts of the previous exams are not available; exams exercises and questions are very similar to the ones already given as part of the learning material.
Students whose grade exceeds a given threshold have the possibility to ask for an additional oral examination. This consists in one question, whose outcome can improve or worsen the grade of the written examination.
More details about exam rules are available in the slides presented at the beginning of the course.
Unfortunately no textbook is available that presents all the topics that are part of this subject. For Ethernet and switched networks a very good textbook is the following:
R. Seifert, J. Edwards. The All-New Switch Book: The Complete Guide to LAN Switching Technology, Wiley, 2008, ISBN 978-0470287156.