Principles of sustainable and resilient network design. This course investigates topics related to the application of network protocols to design problems such as scalability, hierarchy, fault isolation, infrastructure security, high availability and services support. Principles will be supported by real life case studies. 3 credit hours.

Graduate Course in Internet Protocols or equivalent. The student is expected to have a solid knowledge of networking basics.

• Network Design Principles: introduction to best practices in network design; history, requirements and evolution.
• Network Architecture Building Blocks: in depth study of topics such as scalability, hierarchy, fault isolation, security and high availability, and their relationship to specific network protocols and applications.
• Case Studies: review of real life scenarios to support the architecture principles.

Homework and Reading Assignments throughout the semester.

Exams: 2 (Mid-Term and Final)

Projects: Individually oriented. The semester-long project is an open-ended networking research project. Students can wither work individually or in groups. The specific topic will result from an agreement between the project group and he instructor.

There is not a required text for the course. Class notes/presentations and a reading list is utilized during the course.

NCSU has recommended minimum specifications for computers used for classes. Depending on your computer needs, we recommend your computer meet or exceed the following minimum specifications below.

PCs must have an Intel-compatible 1 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive with 1 GB free space available, 256 Color Display, CD-ROM drive, 1024x768 (min.) video adapter, sound card, and speakers. The operating system should be Windows XP Pro. Real One Player Basic (available free online) and high speed Internet connection such as cable, DSL, T1 or LAN will be required for EOL courses.

MAC users must have a G4 processor with firewire and USB factory built-in, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB with 1GB free space available, 256 Color Display, CD-ROM drive, 1024x768 (min) video adapter, sound card, and speakers. The operating system must be MacOS 10.4 (minimum) along with the above RealOne and Internet specifications above.

For more detailed information on computer specifications and recommendations, please refer to our website at: http://engineeringonline.ncsu.edu/currentstudents/computeraccess.htm