CS 455 Data Communication (Fall 2025)

Instructor: Dr Nik Sultana, Department of Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology
Lecture Time: TR 11:25-12:40 CT    Lecture Location: SB 220
TA: Alexander Wolosewicz (awolosewicz@hawk).
Office Hours:     Alexander: Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:30-13:30,       Nik: Tuesdays at 09:00-10:00 (: Away on 10/21, 10/28, 11/4 and 11/18)
Announcements: On Canvas.
Course content: This page and Canvas.
Grading: Assignments (30%), Project (30%), Mid-term Exam (20%), Final Exam (20%).
Policies: See the policies page.
Books and material:
  • Textbook: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 8th edition (Kurose and Ross).
    Check with the library to reserve copies of textbooks.
  • The FABRIC testbed.

Course Material

These are the course notes:
  1. Introduction to Data Communication
  2. Codes for Messages, Resilience, and Brevity
  3. Packet Analysis and Filtering
  4. Low-level Protocols for Communicating Data

Course Calendar

   The final exam takes place during Exam Week and isn't shown in the course calendar. The final exam takes place at 08:00am on December 9 in SB220.

MondayTuesday WednesdayThursday Friday
Aug 18
 Aug 19
LEC 1: Introduction and Course Outline
 Aug 20
 Aug 21
LEC 2: Introduction to Coding
 Aug 22
Aug 25
 Aug 26
LEC 3: Huffman Codes
Assignment 1 released 		Aug 27
 Aug 28
LEC 4: Huffman Codes
 Aug 29
Sep 01
Labor Day -- No Classes 		Sep 02
LEC 5: Introduction to FABRIC
 Sep 03
 Sep 04
LEC 6: Error Detection
DUE: Assignment 1
 Sep 05
Sep 08
 Sep 09
LEC 7: Error Detection
 Sep 10
 Sep 11
LEC 8: Hamming Codes
Assignment 2 released 		Sep 12
Sep 15
 Sep 16
LEC 9: Hamming Codes
 Sep 17
 Sep 18
LEC 10: Convolutional Codes
DUE: Assignment 2
 Sep 19
Assignment 3 released
Sep 22
 Sep 23
LEC 11: Convolutional Codes
 Sep 24
 Sep 25
LEC 12: Traffic Generation
 Sep 26
Sep 29
 Sep 30
Mid-term Exam
 Oct 01
 Oct 02
LEC 13: Packet Capture and Analysis
 Oct 03
DUE: Assignment 3
Assignment 4 released
Oct 06
 Oct 07
LEC 14: Packet Capture and Analysis
 Oct 08
 Oct 09
LEC 15: Guest lecture: Nishanth Shyamkumar: Tutorial on using Patchwork for Network Monitoring
 Oct 10
Oct 13
Fall Break Days -- No Classes 		Oct 14
Fall Break Days -- No Classes 		Oct 15
 Oct 16
LEC 16: Guest lecture: Oliver Michel: Real-Time Multimedia transmission and Video Conferencing
 Oct 17
DUE: Assignment 4
Oct 20
 Oct 21
LEC 17: (Inter) networks
 Oct 22
 Oct 23
LEC 18: (Inter) networks
 Oct 24
Assignment 5 released
Oct 27
 Oct 28
LEC 19: (Inter) networks
 Oct 29
 Oct 30
LEC 20: Intro to P4
 Oct 31
DUE: Assignment 5
Nov 03
DUE: Project description
 Nov 04
LEC 21: P4 examples
Assignment 6 released 		Nov 05
 Nov 06
LEC 22: More P4 examples, and project discussion
 Nov 07
Nov 10
 Nov 11
LEC 23: More P4 examples, and project discussion
 Nov 12
 Nov 13
LEC 24: More P4 examples, and project discussion
 Nov 14
Nov 17
DUE: Project progress update
 Nov 18
LEC 25: DPDK
DUE: Assignment 6
 Nov 19
 Nov 20
LEC 26: DPDK (continued)
 Nov 21
Nov 24
 Nov 25
LEC 27: Low-level protocols
 Nov 26
Thanksgiving Break -- No Classes 		Nov 27
Thanksgiving Break -- No Classes 		Nov 28
Thanksgiving Break -- No Classes
Dec 01
DUE: Project
 Dec 02
LEC 28: Low-level protocols
 Dec 03
 Dec 04
LEC 29: Low-level protocols
 Dec 05