Computer Networking (Udacity)

Computer Networking (Udacity)

This course covers advanced topics in Computer Networking such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Data Center Networking and Content Distribution. The course is divided into three parts:

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Udacity's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Part 1 is about the implementation, design principles and goals of a Computer Network and touches upon the various routing algorithms used in CN (such as link-state and distance vector).
Part 2 talks about resource control and content distribution in Networking Applications. It covers Congestion Control and Traffic Shaping.
Part 3 deals with the operations and management of computer networks encompassing SDN's (Software Defined Networks), Traffic Engineering and Network Security.
Want to build on your Computer Networking knowledge or move into Network Engineering positions such as Systems Admin, Network Admin or Technical Operations (WebOps)? If so, this is the class for you.
Computer Networking takes a hands-on approach to teaching very technical material, using Mininet (a network emulator) to show you how a computer network functions, what factors contribute to its efficiency and how to overcome inherent limitations.

What You Will Learn

Lesson 1
Introduction

  • Computer Networking Overview
  • What This Class is Not About

Lesson 2
Architecture & Principles

  • A Brief History of the Internet
  • Architectural Design Principles
  • Packet Switching
  • File Transfer
  • End to End Argument Violations

Lesson 3
Switching

  • Switching and Bridging
  • Bootstrapping: Networking Two Hosts
  • ARP: Address Resolution Protocol
  • Interconnecting LANs with Hubs
  • Switches: Traffic Isolation
  • Spanning Tree
  • Switches vs. Routers

-Buffer Sizing for a TCP Sender

Lesson 4
Routing

  • Internet Routing
  • Intra-AS Topology
  • Distance-Vector Routing
  • Link State Routing
  • Interdomain Routing
  • IGP vs. iBGP
  • BGP Route Selection
  • Multiple Exit Discriminator (MEI)
  • Interdomain Routing Business Models

Lesson 5
Naming, Addressing & Forwarding

  • IP Addressing
  • Pre-1994: “Classful” Addressing
  • IP Address Allocation
  • Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR)
  • Multihoming Frustrates Aggregation
  • Address Lookup Using Tries
  • Memory Efficiency and Fast Lookup
  • Alternatives to LPM with Tries
  • NAT and IPv6
  • Network Address Translation (NAT)

Lesson 6
Router Design Basics

  • Router Design
  • Basic Router Architecture
  • Decision: Crossbar Switching
  • Switching Algorithm: Maximal Matching
  • Head of Line Blocking
  • Scheduling and Fairness
  • Max-Min Fairness

Lesson 7
Domain Name System (DNS)

  • Record Types
  • Examples (using “dig”)
  • Lookup IP Address

Lesson 8
Congestion Control & Streaming

  • Congestion Control
  • AIMD (TCP Congestion Control)
  • Data Centers & TCP “Incast”
  • Barrier Synchronization & Idle Time
  • Multimedia & Streaming
  • Digitizing Audio & Video
  • Streaming Video
  • Skype

Lesson 9
Rate Limiting and Traffic Shaping

  • Traffic Classification & Shaping
  • Source Classification
  • Leaky Bucket Traffic Shaping
  • (r, t) Traffic Shaping
  • Shaping Bursty Traffic Patterns
  • Power Boost
  • Effects on Latency
  • Buffer Bloat
  • Packet Monitoring

Lesson 10
Content Distribution

  • The Web and Caching
  • HTTP Requests
  • Persistent Connections
  • Content Distribution Networks (CDNs)
  • Server Selection
  • Content Routing
  • Bit Torrent
  • Solution to Freeriding: “Choking”
  • Distributed Hash Tables
  • Consistent Hashing

Lesson 11
Software Defined Networking

  • Network Management Overview
  • Software Defined Networking (SDN)
  • Control and Data Planes
  • Different SDN Controllers
  • NOX: Overview
  • Ryu, Floodlight, Nox and Pox
  • Customizing Control

Lesson 12
Traffic Engineering

  • Traffic Engineering Overview
  • Interdomain Traffic Engineering
  • Measuring, Modeling and Controlling Traffic
  • Link Utilization Function
  • BGP in Interdomain Traffic Engineering
  • Multipath Routing
  • Data Center Networking
  • Valiant Load Balance
  • Jellyfish Data Center Topology

Lesson 13
Network Security

  • Internet is Insecure
  • Resource Exhaustion
  • Routing Security
  • Origin and Path Authentication
  • DNS Security
  • DNS Cache Poisoning

Lesson 14
Internet Worms

  • Viruses and Internet Worms
  • Internet Worm Lifecyle
  • First Worm: “Morris” Worm
  • Worm Outbreaks in Detail
  • Modeling Fast-Spreading Worms

Lesson 15
Spam

  • Spam
  • IP Blacklisting

Lesson 16
Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks

  • TCP 3-Way Handshake
  • Inferring Denial of Service Activity using Backscatter
  • Automated DoS Attack Mitigation
  • MTPCP

Prerequisites and Requirements
The ideal preparation for this course would be the successful completion of an undergraduate level Computer Networking course. An understanding of the TCP/IP protocol and the its layer model is recommended. Basic knowledge of python (such as through Intro to Computer Science) is required.
You should be comfortable with the implementation of basic search algorithms and a working knowledge of Linux and virtual machines is recommended.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Cybersecurity in Healthcare (Hospitals & Care Centres) (Coursera) Coursera
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Cybersecurity in Healthcare (Hospitals & Care Centres) (Coursera)

The Cybersecurity in Healthcare MOOC was developed as part the SecureHospitals.eu project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Coordination Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No. 826497. The course "Cybersecurity in Healthcare" has been developed to raise awareness and understanding the role of cybersecurity in healthcare (e.g., hospitals, care centres, clinics, other medical or social care institutions and service organisations) and the challenges that surround it.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Intro to Information Security (Udacity) Udacity
Georgia Institute of Technology,Udacity

Intro to Information Security (Udacity)

Offered at Georgia Tech as CS 6035. This course provides a one-semester overview of information security. It is designed to help students with prior computer and programming knowledge — both undergraduate and graduate — understand this important priority in society today. The technical content of the course gives a broad overview of essential concepts and methods for providing and evaluating security in information processing systems (operating systems and applications, networks, protocols, and so on).

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Secure and Private AI (Udacity) Udacity
Udacity,Facebook

Secure and Private AI (Udacity)

Learn how to extend PyTorch with the tools necessary to train AI models that preserve user privacy. This free course will introduce you to three cutting-edge technologies for privacy-preserving AI: Federated Learning, Differential Privacy, and Encrypted Computation. You will learn how to use the newest privacy-preserving technologies, such as OpenMined's PySyft. PySyft extends Deep Learning tools—such as PyTorch—with the cryptographic and distributed technologies necessary to safely and securely train AI models on distributed private data.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Exam Prep: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (Coursera) Coursera
AWS

Exam Prep: AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (Coursera)

This new intermediate-level course from Amazon Web Services (AWS) is designed to help you to assess your preparedness for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam. You will learn how to prepare for the exam by exploring the exam’s topic areas and how they map to architecting on AWS. You will review sample certification questions in each domain, practice skills with hands-on exercises, test your knowledge with practice question sets, and learn strategies for identifying incorrect responses by interpreting the concepts that are being tested in the exam.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Digital Footprint (Coursera) Coursera
University of Edinburgh

Digital Footprint (Coursera)

If I Googled you, what would I find? As we move around the online world we leave tracks and traces of our activity all the time: social media accounts, tagged images, professional presences, scraps of text, but also many artefacts we don't always realise we are leaving behind, or that others leave about us. In this course you will hear from a range of experts and you will have an opportunity to explore and reflect on your own online tracks and traces, to understand why your digital footprint is important. We will introduce you to some of the tools and approaches to effectively manage your online presence (or digital footprint).

Nov 2nd 2026
3 Weeks
Malware Analysis and Introduction to Assembly Language (Coursera) Coursera
IBM

Malware Analysis and Introduction to Assembly Language (Coursera)

Malicious software, or malware, is typically delivered over a network and is designed to cause disruption to a computer, client, server, or network. Disruptions can include leaked private information, unauthorized access to information or systems, blocked user access, interference with security and privacy, or numerous other variations of attacking systems.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
GT - Refresher - Advanced OS (Udacity) Udacity
Georgia Institute of Technology,Udacity

GT - Refresher - Advanced OS (Udacity)

The course covers the basics of Memory Systems, File Systems, Multithreaded Programming, and Networking. Together these form a strong foundation from which the student can understand cutting edge research in the areas of Virtualization, Distributed Systems, and Internet-scale services in the GT Advanced Operating Systems sequence.

Self Paced
Self-Paced