Teaching Data Communications and Networking Based on the bidders' conference in the last module. an addendum to the rfp is distrbuted It answers the questions asked by students. a discussion of the design and cost section of the semester report is be- gun. Students use their own research, the original RFP, and the rPf addendum in the assignment for this module -they must submit a draft of the introduction( without the executive summary of the design and requirements sections of the semester project report Small, Single Switch LAN (Module Four) This module presents Ethernet switching and relates it to the TCP-IP/OSI hybrid model. Encapsulation is presented. The small single switched LAN is discussed as are switching tables and techniques, as well as switch pricing. Design and diagramming concepts are introduced Students are given handouts which discuss symbolic techniques to represent network components(da gramming), and structured cabling plan development(nomenclature). Both diagramming and nomen- clature are presented in class, and are to be used this modules assignment, for the upcoming assignments and the semester project. Students must submit a diagram and nomenclature for a single switch LAN Larger LANs(Module Five) The goal of this module is to take the concepts learned thus far and extend them to a multi switch envi ronment. Ethernet, wireless, ATM and legacy LANS are presented. wide area networking is also intro- duced. Techniques are presented for calculating bandwidth requirements. The discussion of the semes- ter project continues with the design and cost sections The assignment is to design a metropolitan area network. They are to use the design and nomenclature techniques presented earlier and must calculate the bandwidth requirements for Internet connectivity to this network Telephony and WANS (Module Six This module reinforces the idea that most wide area networking is based on telephone carriers as well as the integration of voice and data carriers. Public switched telephone networking is discussed and how it affects our ability to create wide and local area networks A second bidders' conference is held and another rfp addendum is distributed. Students must submit a draft network design for the TSI project. This is reviewed and quickly returned so comments can be corporated into the final report WANs and VPNs(Module Seven) Wide area networking is continued, and the ability to build a private network versus using carrier leased lines and the Internet is presented VPNS are also discussed. The assignment for this module is the sub- mission of a preliminary hardware and cost list Internetworking(Module Eight Routers tie together networks. In this module routing is introduced, along with forwarding table crea tion, TCP/IP standards used in routing, and TCP handshaking. Additionally, layer 3 and layer 3 Ethernet switches are discussed. All of this material is held to the end since it is not necessarily needed for the semester project. There are no additional handouts or assignments Conclusion It is not difficult to teach the"how of network design, but teaching the"why " is a challenge. Our ex- perience using the two-thread framework presented in this paper is that student can much better under- 1152Teaching Data Communications and Networking 1152 Based on the bidders’ conference in the last module, an addendum to the RFP is distributed. It answers the questions asked by students. A discussion of the design and cost section of the semester report is be￾gun. Students use their own research, the original RFP, and the RPF addendum in the assignment for this module – they must submit a draft of the introduction (without the executive summary of the design) and requirements sections of the semester project report. Small, Single Switch LAN (Module Four) This module presents Ethernet switching and relates it to the TCP-IP/OSI hybrid model. Encapsulation is presented. The small single switched LAN is discussed as are switching tables and techniques, as well as switch pricing. Design and diagramming concepts are introduced. Students are given handouts which discuss symbolic techniques to represent network components (dia￾gramming), and structured cabling plan development (nomenclature). Both diagramming and nomen￾clature are presented in class, and are to be used this modules assignment, for the upcoming assignments and the semester project. Students must submit a diagram and nomenclature for a single switch LAN. Larger LANs (Module Five) The goal of this module is to take the concepts learned thus far and extend them to a multi-switch envi￾ronment. Ethernet, wireless, ATM and legacy LANS are presented. Wide area networking is also intro￾duced. Techniques are presented for calculating bandwidth requirements. The discussion of the seme s￾ter project continues with the design and cost sections. The assignment is to design a metropolitan area network. They are to use the design and nomenclature techniques presented earlier and must calculate the bandwidth requirements for Internet connectivity to this network. Telephony and WANS (Module Six) This module reinforces the idea that most wide area networking is based on telephone carriers as well as the integration of voice and data carriers. Public switched telephone networking is discussed and how it affects our ability to create wide and local area networks. A second bidders’ conference is held and another RFP addendum is distributed. Students must submit a draft network design for the TSI project. This is reviewed and quickly returned so comments can be in￾corporated into the final report. WANs and VPNs (Module Seven) Wide area networking is continued, and the ability to build a private network versus using carrier leased lines and the Internet is presented. VPNs are also discussed. The assignment for this module is the sub￾mission of a preliminary hardware and cost list. Internetworking (Module Eight) Routers tie together networks. In this module routing is introduced, along with forwarding table crea￾tion, TCP/IP standards used in routing, and TCP handshaking. Additionally, layer 3 and layer 3 Ethernet switches are discussed. All of this material is held to the end since it is not necessarily needed for the semester project. There are no additional handouts or assignments. Conclusion It is not difficult to teach the “how” of network design, but teaching the “why” is a challenge. Our ex￾perience using the two-thread framework presented in this paper is that student can much better under-