Nazarbayev University – Computer Science Department

CSCI 333 – Computer Networks

Spring 2024

General Information
● Instructors: Zohaib Latif, Sain Saginbekov, Dimitrios Zormpas (Zorbas)
● Class schedule:
o Section 1: Mon, Wed, 9:00 am - 9:50 am (7e429, online, 7522)
o Section 2: Mon, Wed, 10:00 am - 10:50 am (7e429, online, 7522)
o Section 3: Mon, Wed, 9:00 am - 9:50 am (7e429, online, 7522)
● Lab session:
o Friday: Marat Isteleyev, Syed Muhammad Umair Arif
o Lab location: 7.522
Pre-requisites
● CSCI 152 Performance and Data Structures (C- and above). Programming fundamentals will be
considered as known.
Course Overview
The course presents an information-theoretic approach to the creation, collection, storage, retrieval,
transformation, and transmission of digital data across a variety of media and physical devices, both
wired and wireless. The course emphasizes data integration into all levels of networked systems
following a top-down approach.
Course Aims
Upon completion of this course, the student will:
● Understand the basic concepts of data communications, including transmission media, signal
encoding, error detection/correction, flow control, multiplexing and spread spectrum.
● Understand the types and basic concepts of wide area networks, including circuit and packet
switching, routing and congestion control in packet-switched networks and cellular networks.
● Understand the types and basic concepts of local area networks, including Ethernet and IEEE
802.11.
● Understand the principles of internetworking, including IPv6, routing in the internet, and the
TCP and UDP protocols.
● Be able to write simple networked applications using the socket interface in Java/Python.
Course Material
The required textbook for this class is: “Computer Networking, International Edition, 6th edition,
James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, Pearson Education Limited, 2013.”
The primary course materials will be provided before or during lectures. The lecture slides and
videos and associated materials will be uploaded to Moodle. Supplementary materials in the form of
online reference, research articles, demo, etc., may be provided during the course.
Class Structure
We will have offline lectures on Mondays and online lectures/office hours on Wednesdays, where
the primary contents will be presented in the form of conceptual lectures, demonstration, and
discussion. The class will consist of lab assignments, mid-term, and a final exam. The labs will be
conducted offline and will take place on Fridays.
Homework will be given several times during the semester and due approximately one week later.
Late lab assignment and homework submissions will NOT be accepted, and NO credit will be given
to the late submission. Homework will include one or more programming/writing problems. If you
are caught plagiarizing code from anyone, or use code obtained online, or get unauthorized help
from others, you will get a ZERO for the assignment/homework. Moreover, your case may be
reported to the Department/School level.
There will be an offline exam during the exam weeks. You will not be allowed to use computers,
phones, mobile devices, and notes during the exams. Only a calculator, pen or pencil, blank
papers, and eraser are accepted. For the students who miss classes, assignments, and/or exams,
you MUST EXPLICITLY inform all the instructors in-advance. After that, the presentations for
medical reasons are required to submit a doctor’s note. For the valid cases, the percentage of the
missing exam will be transferred to the next one.
Piazza
Besides, we may use the Piazza platform for handling general questions and answers from students.
The main purpose of the piazza is to help all of you if you are struggling with starting the
assignments, lectures, and some other technical problems. Piazza should reduce the number of
repetitions of the same questions due to the big number of students enrolled in the course. Please
follow the following instructions:
1. Please use YOUR REAL FULL-NAME on Piazza. Any account which is NOT connected with
a real student will be removed immediately. You can use Piazza to ask/answer questions, which
were not clearly specified in the specification of the assignment, lectures, about technical issues,
or organizational issues.
2. The instructors will make some official announcements through Piazza and Moodle. Students
should make sure that Piazza sends email notifications to your NU address so that you can
receive and read these announcements daily.
3. You should read the previously asked and answered question and please, do not ask the same
question several times. If the question is repeated or very similar to the one which was already
answered, your question will be removed or said that it was answered already, which means you
should scroll down and find it.
4. You are not allowed to post any code/solution here, anyone who will do it will be counted as
cheating.
You are not allowed to insult each other and your TAs/Instructors. The instructors and TAs have
the right to suspend and remove any irrelevant topics.
Class Assessment
The final grade is calculated as follows:
● Homework: 21% (3 x 7%)
● Lab assignments 20%
● Midterm exam: 25%
● Final exam: 35%
Note 1: The students from other departments are graded the same as Computer Science students,
no exception, no negotiation.
Note 2: Exams can be given out of class time according to the duration of the exam. In this case, we
will inform you at least one week before the exams.
Note 3: the content of the exams will include the lectures’ slides and the corresponding
narration/explanation from the instructor.
Note 4: all the lectures/exams will be arranged based on Astana time. Any absence regarding the
difference in time-zone is unacceptable.
Final letter grades will be assigned using the following:
A 95 or above C 65 up to 70
A- 90 up to 95 C- 60 up to 65
B+ 85 up to 90 D+ 55 up to 60
B 80 up to 85 D 50 up to 55
B- 75 up to 80 F 0 up to 50
C+ 70 up to 75

Course Policies
Attendance & Responsibilities
The attendance is not mandatory but strongly encouraged. Missing classes and habitual tardiness
may have a negative effect on your grade.
Moreover, we will be covering a lot of material over the semester. Therefore, you are responsible for
any announcements made during the class period/Moodle/Piazza, so be sure to ask your instructor,
TAs, or classmates for any info that you may have missed if you did not attend.
Electronic Resources
You are expected to check your Nazarbayev University e-mail as well as your Moodle account on a
daily basis for updates and announcements about the course. You will also be required to use
Moodle to submit in-class exercises, programming assignments, and presentation materials as
instructed by your instructor.
Classroom Behavior
You are expected to act respectfully towards your fellow classmates, TAs, and instructors inside and
outside of the classroom. We have a limited amount of time to cover a lot of material this semester,
so you need to pay attention during lectures and presentations, and do your in-class work when it is
assigned. Talking on your phone, texting, filming, chatting online, browsing Facebook or other
social media sites, and talking excessively with your neighbors about non-class related stuff are just
a few examples of behavior that is not acceptable, and will negatively impact your participation
score. In fact, cell phones are prohibited in class. Anyone caught with a cell phone is automatically
marked as not present at the lecture.
Grade disputes
After the announcement of the grade, you have ONE week to bring possible issues to us politely by
email. After that, the case is closed and will not be discussed. Persistent pestering and arguing about
a grade with the TAs and instructors constitute harassment and will be reported. Further grade
disputes should be brought to the attention of the Vice-Dean of Academic Affairs instead.
Academic integrity
Nazarbayev University and The School of Engineering and Digital Sciences have established high
standards for academic integrity, using an approach in which students are trained to produce original
work according to professional standards, and to properly cite and reference the work of others
when it is appropriate to do so.
The specific guidelines are published in the NU Student Handbook. In particular,
● The assignments in this class are designed to introduce important concepts and techniques, and
enable you to explore the material independently so as to gain insight and comprehension of the
subject. Doing the work is much more important than getting the right answer.
● The course is designed such that the new material presented each day builds on the skills
developed in the preceding days; thus, any action that interferes with this process (missing class,
skipping the assignment, copying) will seriously impede your progress.
● You are welcome—and encouraged—to talk through concepts and ideas with your fellow
students and to study with them, but do not give or receive direct help from your classmates on a
graded assignment.
● Assignments should be completed individually. If you distribute your work to others, even if you
are not intending them to copy it, this is still considered academic misconduct.
● Even the appearance of cheating or inappropriate copying should be avoided.
● Students should be aware that the assignment submission process incorporates an automated
plagiarism detector.
● You may only get help on graded assignments from designated people—the instructors or TAs
for the course. If you are struggling with an assignment, by all means, please seek help from
them.
● In the event that academic misconduct such as plagiarism or cheating is discovered, the
student will receive no credit for the work, and the event reported to the Dean of your
school. Egregious cases, or a second offense, can result in failure of the course and potential
suspension or expulsion from the university.
● When a student suspects that another student has violated the academic honesty policy, a report
should be made to the appropriate faculty member.

Class Schedule

Week Classes Topics Readings

1 Jan 8 Introduction to the course. Chapter 1

Overview of topics and Introduction to
Computer Networks.

2 Jan 15 Overview of topics and Introduction to Chapter 1

Jan 17: last day to Computer Networks.
drop course

3 Jan 22 Application Layer Chapter 2

4 Jan 29 Application Layer, Transport Layer Chapter 2, 3

5 Feb 5 Transport Layer Chapter 3

6 Feb 12 Transport Layer Chapter 3

7 Feb 19 Network Layer Chapter 4

8 Feb 26 Network Layer Chapter 4

Feb 28: last day to Midterm Exam
withdraw

9 Mar 4 Network Layer Chapter 4

10 Mar 11 Link Layer Chapter 6

11 Mar 18-22 Spring Break

12 Mar 25 Link Layer Chapter 6

13 Apr 1 Wireless and Mobile Networks 1 Chapter 7

14 Apr 8 Wireless and Mobile Networks 2 Chapter 7

15 Apr 15 Review week

16 Apr 22 Exam Week

This outline is subject to change! Specific chapter sections for the readings will be given just before
the accompanying lectures.