M.I.T. DEPARTMENT OF EECS

6.033 - Computer System Engineering Handout 9 - February 22, 2000

Assignment 3: February 28 through March 3


For Lecture, Monday, February 28:

This lecture is the first lecture of five covering networking. It covers the material in section A ("Interesting properties of networks") of the draft of chapter 4.

For Recitation, Tuesday, February 29:

For recitation and your one-pager, read Metcalfe and Boggs's paper, "Ethernet: distributed packet switching for local computer networks" (Reading #11). You should address the following question in your one-pager:
"Packet repeaters" were used to extend the "signal cover" of an Ethernet. Do "packet repeaters" make Ethernet scalable in terms of number of connected nodes? What other mechanisms did the designers of Ethernet use to attempt to achieve scalability in terms of number of nodes? Do these mechanisms make Ethernet more or less reliable? Give an example of how these mechanisms may make Ethernet more or less reliable.
An interesting side-note: The paper describing Ethernet is "old": 1976. In fact, it is so old that it describes the experimental Ethernet, which ran at 3 MB/second, rather than the commercial standard, which runs at 10 MB/second. If you already know a lot about the current Ethernet, you may notice a number of interesting differences as you read the paper.

For Lecture, Wednesday, March 1:

This lecture covers material in part B ("Getting organized: Layers") of chapter 4.

Review session for the first quiz will be in 4-270 from 7-9pm.

For Recitation, Thursday, March 2:

Design Project 1 is assigned today. Look out for the Design Project on the web.

Design Project 1 is due in two weeks: Thursday, March 16.

 

For Quiz 1, Friday, March 3:

Quiz 1 will be held from 2-3pm on Friday, March 3, 2000. The quiz will cover all the material up to and including the February 29th recitation (R8). The quiz will be open book and open notes meaning that you can use any course materials from this year. The quiz will be held on the third floor of Walker and in 34-101. See the chart below to determine which location you should go to for the quiz. 

            Last Name      Location
              A-R           Walker
              S-Z           34-101

There will be a quiz review from 7-9pm, Wednesday, March 1st. Room 4-270. During this time we will go over an outline of the covered subjects and explain a few questions from the practice quizzes.

If you have a problem regarding the scheduling of the quiz, email Professor Kaashoek at kaashoek@mit.edu.

System aphorism of the week

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works" (J. Gall, Systemantics).
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