Managing and securing computer networks

Duration

30h Th, 12h Labo., 55h Proj.

Number of credits

Lecturer

Guy Leduc

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course covers management and security of computer networks. It is composed of the following chapters:
1st part : Network Management

• The Infrastructure for Network Management
• The Internet-standard management framework: SMI, MIB, SNMP
• ASN.1 notation
• Software-defined networks (SDN)

• Principles of Network Security: principles of cryptography, message integrity, end-point authentication
• Securing applications (email, DNS)
• Securing TCP connections (SSL/TLS)
• Network-layer Security (IPsec)
• Securing LANs (WiFi and switched Ethernet)

• IPv6 Security (seminar by Eric Vyncke, CISCO Systems)

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of the course students will understand well the basic concepts of network management and network security. They will also know how to configure a firewall.
The projects bring out self-learning and team work capabilities, and help improve the writing skills of the students.
Teaching, and all support material, in English allow students to improve their knowledge and skills in this langage.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

• Introduction to computer networks
• Cryptography

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

• Lectures (30 hours) describing in detail the theoretical and practical concepts of the course.
• Three practical project assignments in groups of 2 students: the first one on network management, the second one on OpenFlow (in the lab), and the third one on network security (in the lab).

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

The face-to-face lectures are complemented by a seminar and projects. The latter are mainly carried out remotely.

Recommended or required readings

Reference books:
James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross. Computer Networking - A Top-Down Approach (Sixth Edition), Addison-Wesley, 2012. Also published by Pearson (ISBN 978-0-273-76896-8).
Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, Mike Speciner. Network Security - PRIVATE Communication in a PUBLIC World (2nd edition). Prentice-Hall, 2002 (ISBN 0-13-046019-2).
Slides : http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~leduc/cours/ISIR.html

Assessment methods and criteria

The evaluation is twofold: the projects (weight of 50%) and an oral exam on the theory (50%).
At the oral exam the student has to expose clearly and in a synthetical way one part of the course, and prove his/her in-depth understanding by answering questions. A student who has not completed his/her projects is not allowed to take this exam.
The assessment of the project will be based on (1) the completeness of the software, (2) the quality of the programming, and (3) the quality of the report.
The second exam session (in September) is identical to the first one, with the same weighting. And students may improve their projects.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

The course is organized during the second term (from February to May), on Wednesdays from 9AM to 12:30PM. All lectures in English.

Contacts

Teacher: Guy Leduc, Guy.Leduc@ulg.ac.be Teaching assistant: Cyril Soldani,  soldani@run.montefiore.ulg.ac.be