CS 6386 Telecommunications Software Design

CS 6386 Telecommunications Software Design

Course Summary

This course covers some important aspects of the design of software in the telecommunications
industry. Within this summary, we will discuss the style of presentation and assignments, review
subject matter, and talk about system requirements.

1. Presentation style.
Each course module will have an associated Adobe PDF file. I advise that you download
these modules and go through them offline. Ideally you should download each module just
before we cover it. This way you’ll get the most recent version.

Although you will be going through the modules offline, you may need to access the WebCT
threaded discussion for this course and join in the discussions. Every few days, I’ll pick one or
two of you and set you a specific question to answer. In each case, you’ll have 3 days to
submit an answer, then everyone else will be able to join in. Ten percent of the final grade will
be for your contributions to these discussions, so don’t be shy! All home works and projects
will be posted on WebCT. .

2. Honor Code
I will make it clear in the unlikely event that you are allowed to submit joint work. In all cases,
except proctored exams, you can discuss general approaches to problems with others, but the
work that you submit for grading must be entirely yours, with the exception of the work of
others that is properly cited. You’ll learn more about exams later.

3. Textbook.
We will use the text, High-Speed Networks and Internets, latest Edition, by William
Stallings, published by Prentice Hall. You’ll get reading assignments as we progress through
the course. We will not follow the order of the material in the book. Other recommended
reading sources may include web pages. The chapters of the text that we will not cover should
be of value in other courses, such as the Performance Analysis course.

4. The Course Material.

Since I cannot be sure exactly how much or what depth of the prerequisites you have covered,
I have included some review material. The reviews primarily come from the Operating
Systems and Telecommunications Networks courses.

The first module is a review of telecommunications networks, including ISDN, Frame Relay,

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CS 6386 Telecommunications Software Design

ATM, X.25, and others. We will cover those aspects of the basic operation and protocols for
these networks. For example, flow and error control facilities may be provided at the link-level
in some networks, and end-to-end in others. TCP implements its own end-to-end flow and
error control strategies. Congestion control is of vital importance in the Internet. Of the
sundry networks that make up the Internet, each has its own policies and strategies for
congestion control.

Then we study how to analyze and simulate networks, writing our own simulation programs
from scratch using C++ or Java. Some Java Applets will be used throughout the course for
students to conduct experiments on simulated networks. The analysis will include an
introduction to queuing theory.

Next is a module on Real-Time Programming. The need for speed is paramount in such
systems. We discuss memory management and scheduling of real-time tasks.
Telecommunications switches and other network components are real-time systems in which
these issues are of vital importance. Our discussion is a little broader than is needed just
telecommunications systems, and covers scheduling of real-time tasks that are periodic and
aperiodic in nature, using static and dynamic scheduling strategies.

Then there is a series of modules on the details of low-level network programming with
Sockets, Remote Procedure Calls, and Java Remote Method Invocation. The objective of
these modules is to give you a firm understanding of the tools available to programmers at
various levels of detail and complexity. We will also study the use of CGI scripts, Perl scripts
and Java Servlets.

Next comes a review of TCP/IP and its implementation on various networks. Error control,
flow and congestion control are essential features of TCP, while inter-network and intra-
network routing are the main focuses of IP.

Then there is an optional module on public key encryption. Then we study the theory and
you complete some assignments, some on paper, and others using an Applet. The module
includes the theory of public key encryption and the use of digital signatures.

Finally, we study compression algorithms. You are probably familiar with winzip or gzip. We
will study the theory behind such systems.

Other topics might be added, depending on rate of progress. You will be encouraged to
suggest topics and even offer presentations of your own.

5. Assessment:
Two exams, mid term (25%) and late term (25%) (no final), home works (15%) ,
programming project(s) (25%), and WebCT discussion contribution (10%).

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 CS 6386 Telecommunications Software Design

Instructor: Ivor Page, ivor@utdallas.edu, ECS 4.410, 972-883-2160

Office Hours:

TA:

Mid Term:
Late Term:

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