Κατεύθυνση: Major in Communications & Networks

Network Management

Learning Outcomes

  • Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be able to:
  •  select the adoption of appropriate models and protocols for network management, depending on their technical characteristics
  • design solutions for the initial design and the development of computer networks, in the context of specific business objectives and technical requirements/problem
  •  analyze, recognize, and assess design issues in wireless sensor networks
  •  identify and evaluate technical and business conditions and clauses to monitor the required level of service in networks through a service level agreement (SLA).

During the laboratory practice, the student exercises to monitor and control the operation of remote network elements with the utilization of specific protocols.

Course Contents

•The architecture of the Internet, Review of basic concepts of networks and network protocols
•Subnetting and Hierarchical Routing
•Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
•Data center networking
•Role of management systems, Introductory management concepts, Management functions: configuration, fault, accounting, performance and security management, Management levels: element management, network management, service management, business management
•Management entities and managed nodes, Design and development of management applications
•SNMP Protocol (Simple Network Management Protocol), Management Information Base (MIB), MIB-II
•RMON (Remote network Monitoring)
•NETCONF protocol
•Web-based Management
•ISO/OSI management standard
•TMN management model
•Design of fixed and wireless access networks
•Design Issues of Wireless Sensor Networks
•Network performance monitoring through a Service Level Agreement

Furthermore, in the platform eclass /Aristarchus lecture notes and laboratory exercises are posted for the students.

Recommended Readings

•Miliou Amalia N., Nikopolitidis Petros, Pomportsis Andreas S. (2007): Management of computer networks, A. Tziola & Sons Publications
•Development and Management of Computer Networks, Fouliras Panagiotis, Greek Academic Electronic Books – “Kallipos” Repository
•Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, James Kurose, Keith Ross, Pearson Education Limited
•P.Oppenheimer (2010): Top-Down Network Design, 3rd Edition, Cisco Press
•Sudhir Dixit, Ramjee Prasad, Wireless IP and Building the Mobile Internet (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Nathan Muller, LANs TO WANs: The Complete Management Guide, (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Matthew Liotine, Mission-Critical Network Planning, (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Nihal Kularatna, Dileeka Dias, Essentials of Modern Telecommunications Systems (Artech House Books, 2004)

Knowledge and Competence Management

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able:

  • to know and understand the key concepts of knowledge management and competence management.
  • to analyse, assess and select systems that support the management of organisational knowledge and the management of professional competences.
  • to know, understand and apply international and European standards for modelling and describing Individual and Organisational Competences.

Course Contents

  • Knowledge Management:
    • Introduction to Knowledge Management
    • The Nature of Knowledge: What is Knowledge, Alternative Views of Knowledge, Different Types of Knowledge, Locations of Knowledge
    • Knowledge Management Methods and Tools: KM Processes, KM Systems, KM Infrastructure
    • Organizational Impacts of Knowledge Management
    • Factors Influencing Knowledge Management
    • Case Studies: Professional Knowledge and Professional Practices Management through Online Professional Communities
  • Competence Management:
    • Introduction to Competence Management
    • Definition of Competence. Competence vs Competency
    • Competence Models: Definition and Methods for developing Competence Models
    • Case Studies:
      • Individual Non-Professional Competences: the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1)
      • Individual Professional Competences: the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT).
      • Organizational Competences: the European Framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations (DigCompOrg)

Recommended Readings

  • Textbook in Greek (provided for free)
  • Additional Open Access Educational Resources available through the course management system

Systems Interoperability

Learning Outcomes

The course’s material includes the basic concepts related to system interoperability, and international standards and initiatives on system interoperability. The European Interoperability Framework is analyzed and crrent technologies / standards / standards / specifications are presented for different domains (indicative: eGovernment, eProcurement, eInvoicing, eHealth).

Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be in position to:

  • Explain the key concepts related to system interoperability.
  • Explain the basic principles of the European Interoperability Framework.
  • Apply design methodology for interoperable digital services.
  • Evaluate and select the appropriate specifications to ensure interoperability of systems in various eGovernment domains.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to systems interoperability
  • Basic principles, definitions and benefits
  • Main approaches and requirements
  • International Standards and Initiatives
  • European Interoperability Framework
  • Interoperability at organizational, semantic and technical level
  • Methodology for designing interoperable digital services
  • Interoperable public services
  • Interoperability in eProcurement
  • Interoperability in eInvoicing
  • Interoperability in eHealth

Recommended Readings

  • Notes and course slides
  • Papers

Web Programming

Learning Outcomes

This course aims to familiarize students with web programming technologies and provide a clear understanding of the design and management challenges inherent in modern web systems and applications. The curriculum covers the design and implementation of RESTful APIs, as well as critical issues such as security, performance, scalability, and extensibility.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Design and implement RESTful APIs from the ground up.
  • Apply best practices for API design, versioning, security, and documentation.
  • Develop applications using Java EE and the Spring Framework.
  • Leverage methodologies and best practices for developing multi-threaded applications and managing concurrency (threads, locks, synchronization).
  • Integrate authentication and authorization techniques (including IAM) to secure web services.

General Competences

  • Search for, analysis and synthesis of data and information by the use of appropriate technologies
  • Development of free, creative and inductive thinking
  • Decision-making
  • Individual/Independent work
  • Group/ Team work

Course Contents

  • Introduction to RESTful APIs (RESTful architecture, REST constraints, HTTP methods, and status codes)
  • Design of RESTful APIs (best practices in API design, resource identification and URIs, HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State), pagination, filtering, and sorting)
  • Implementation of RESTful services, use of frameworks (e.g., Spring Boot – Java, Flask – Python, Ktor – Kotlin), data serialization formats (JSON, XML)
  • Error handling and validation (error handling strategies, effective use of HTTP status codes, custom error responses, input data validation techniques)
  • Security in RESTful APIs (API security best practices, authentication and authorization (OAuth2, JWT), HTTPS and data encryption)
  • API documentation and testing (Using Swagger/OpenAPI for documentation, unit and integration testing with tools like Postman, JUnit)
  • Implementation of architectural patterns and design patterns like MVC and MVVM.
  • Design and implementation of GraphQL schemas and services.
  • Communication between applications and systems via Sockets.
  • Optimization of server application performance through caching, load balancing, and other techniques.

Suggested Bibliography

  • ARMANDO FOX, DAVID PATTERSON (2017), ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΑΝΑΠΤΥΞΗΣ ΛΟΓΙΣΜΙΚΟΥ ΩΣ ΥΠΗΡΕΣΙΑΣ: ΜΙΑ ΕΥΕΛΙΚΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΜΕ ΧΡΗΣΗ ΥΠΟΛΟΓΙΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΝΕΦΟΥΣ
  • Χρήστος Δουληγέρης, Ρόζα Μαυροπόδη, Εύη Κοπανάκη, Απόστολος Καραλής (2021): Τεχνολογίες και Προγραμματισμός στον Παγκόσμιο Ιστό
  • Ι. Κ. ΚΑΒΟΥΡΑΣ, Ι. Ζ. ΜΗΛΗΣ, Α. Α. ΡΟΥΚΟΥΝΑΚΗ, Γ. Β. ΞΥΛΩΜΕΝΟΣ (2011): ΚΑΤΑΝΕΜΗΜΕΝΑ ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΕ JAVA, ΙSBN: 9789609732376
  • Sanjay Patni (2017): Pro RESTful APIs, Design, Build and Integrate with REST, JSON, XML and JAX-RS, ISBN: 9781484226650
  • Fernando Doglio (2018): REST API Development with Node.js, ISBN: 9781484237151

Quantum Computing

Learning Outcomes

The course seeks to familiarize students with the basic principles governing the use of quantum pheonomena for solving computational problems. It focuses on the presentation of the mathematical background that is required to model quantum phenomena related to computational processes and to the analysis of quantum operations and algorithms capable of being executed by quantum computers. Furthermore, the course analyzes the relation between classical and quantum computations and provides a survey of the many open problems that exist in the quantum computing field. At a more applied level the course describes modern programming environments for quantum computing.

Course Contents

  • Mathematical Background
    • Elements of Linear Algebra, Elements of Complex Analysis
  • Elements of Quantum Mechanics
    • Quantum mechanical behavior in electrons and photons (spin, polarization) – Quantum Mechanical Experiments
  • Qubits and their Attributes
    • Representation, Superposition, Tensor Product, Entanglement, Measurement, Bell’s Inequality
  • Classical Logic, Gates and Circuits
  • Quantum Gates and Circuits
  • Quantum Algorithms
    • Deutsch-Josza, Simon, Grover, QFT, Shor
  • Programming Environments for Quantum Computing

Recommended Readings

  • Nielsen, M. A., Chuang, I. L., Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • Instructor’s Notes

Database Systems

Learning Outcomes

The students upon the successful completion of the course will be able:

  • to apply the appropriate techniques for programming and managing database systems
  • to know the basic storage and data organization structures.
  • to apply query processing, query optimization and transaction management mechanisms.
  • to understand the mechanisms that ensure the integrity of the system in the case of multiple concurrent users with access to the same data and database recovery methods in case of failure.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to Database Management Systems (DBMSs). Fundamental concepts of DBMSs, database applications, overview of data models.
  • Data storage and file organization.
  • Query processing methods
  • Query optimization methods.
  • Transaction management: characteristics of a transaction management system.
  • Concurrency Control.
  • Database recovery methods.
  • Parallel and Distributed databases: design, query processing and transaction management in distributed systems.

Recommended Readings

  • Ramakrishnan R. & Gehrke J. (2002): Database Management Systems (3rd Edition), McGraw Hill.
  • Elmasri R. & Navathe S.B. (2007): Fundamentals of Database Systems (5th Edition), Addison-Wesley.

Mobile and Wireless Communications Security

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the concept of security in mobile / wireless communications. Mobile / wireless communications provide mobile users with a wide range of multimedia services that already exist for non-mobile users and stable networking, regardless of location. Along with new prospects, however, mobile / wireless communications raise new concerns about security issues.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to handle, apply and evaluate the security techniques and measures applied to mobile and wireless environments.

Course Contents

  • Wireless security
  • WLAN, IEEE 802.11
  • Authentication check on IEEE 802.11
  • RADIUS & EAP methods
  • IEEE 802.1x
  • WEP
  • IEEE 802.11i, WPA, WPA2 (TKIP, CCMP)

Recommended Readings

  • Zhang Y., Zheng J. & Ma M. (2008): Handbook of Research on Wireless Security, Information Science Reference.
  • Butty L. & Hubaux J.-P. (2007): Security and Cooperation in Wireless Networks: Thwarting Malicious and Selfish Behavior in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Cambridge University Press.

Network Security

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the course is to present and analyze the measures implemented on a network infrastructure, the policies adopted by the network administrator to protect the network and its resources against unauthorized access, and the effectiveness (or lack of) of them. The course focuses on the security of wired-fixed networks that use Internet technology. The mechanisms and security protocols that ensure the operation of the above networks and the data of their users are presented and analyzed.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be familiarized with and will apply different security measures and techniques applied to wired networks that aim to provide security services to users of a network as well as to its providers.

Course Contents

  • Security at lower layers.
  • Network layer security solutions.
  • Application layer security solutions.
  • Key management protocols; identity management protocols.
  • Firewalls.
  • Trust management.
  • Distributed authentication systems and intrusion detection systems.

Recommended Readings

  • Stallings W. (2007): Network Security Essentials, Applications and Standards, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall.
  • Kaufman C., Perlman R. & Speciner M. (2002): Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall.

Wireless Communications

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the course is to enable students to understand the basic principles of electromagnetic systems for wireless communications. By concluding the course, students are able to

  • identify, describe and distinguish the basic characteristics of electromagnetic systems describe physical laws of electromagnetism using appropriate mathematical tools
  • distinguish the type of antenna and examine its characteristics
  • compute metrics which are extensively used in wireless systems and design basic wireless links
  • analyze and design more complicated wireless systems

By concluding the lab sessions students are able to

  • understand physical phenomenon by using mathematical tools
  • identify and apply theory in real world problems
  • use professional antenna design tools for the first time

Course Contents

Initially, introductory concepts of the Theory of Electromagnetic Fields are provided (Sources of Electromagnetic Fields, Electrostatic Fields, Dielectric Modes and Boundary Conditions, Permanent Magnetic Fields, Biot-Savart Law, Magnetic Flow Density, Gauss Law, Lorenz Power). Subsequently, electromagnetic waves in space are described (Maxwell equations, sinusoidal time variations, free space conditions and wave equation, uniform plane waves in lossless media, wave polarization). Thereafter, the students are introduced to antenna theory and the fields of radiation (potential functions, wave radiation areas, far field assumption, generic calculation methodology of radiation fields by antennas, basic key antenna features, antenna as a circuit element, antenna effective length). Examples of antennas are then studied (Hertz dipole, linear dipole antenna of arbitrary length, dipole λ/2, small circular loop antenna). Finally, the fundamental elements of electromagnetic wave propagation are examined (frequency bands & services/applications, wave classification, Friis’ equation and Free Space Loss, reflection & transmission, plane-earth model).

Papers, lectures, case-studies, examples and web pages with valuable information are uploaded at the course web page (Evdoxos).

Recommended Readings

  • “Wireless Communications” in Greek language, Book code in www.eudoxus.gr: 68393538, Edition: 2nd edition/2017, Authors: Kanatas Athanasios, Pantos Georgios, ISBN: 978-960-491-112-7, Publisher: A.Papasotiriou & Sia I.K.E (1st Book)
  • “Antennas – Wireless Links”, Book code in www.eudoxus.gr: 18548842, Edition: 1st edition/2018, Writers: Kapsalis C., Kottis P., ISBN: 960-8050-96-0, Publisher: A. Tziola & Sons S.A. (2nd Book)

Associated scientific Journals

  • ΙΕΕΕ Transactions on Antennas & Propagation
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • IEEE Antennas & Wireless Propagation Letters

Short Range Wireless Networks

Learning Outcomes

The objective of this course is to focus on short range communications with emphasis on wireless local area networks (WiFi), adhoc networks, wireless sensor networks and applications.

At the end of this course, students will have acquired advanced/in depth knowledge in the field of Short Range Communications, with particular emphasis on baseband processing physical layer techniques, and Medium Access Control design.

The students will be capable of performing numerical calculations of various wireless parameters, stochastic modelling of wireless transceivers and performance assessment by means of analytical evaluations and simulations. The students will also be capable of comprehending the design principle of Wireless Local Area Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks of Internet of Things applications.

Course Contents

  • WiFi techniques, technologies, protocols and standards.
  • Short range communications: Personal Area Networks (PAN), Body Area Networks (BAN), Ultra Wide Band communications.
  • AdHoc Networks: Physical layer and transceiver design, MAC layer design, connectivity, topologies and routing.
  • Wireless Sensor Networks: Information-theoretic bounds on sensor network performance, detection and estimation, cooperative transmission, localization and positioning, energy efficiency.
  • Applications: eCommerce, safety, digital home, eHealth.

Recommended Readings

  • Behrouz A. Forouzan, “Data Communications and Networking”, Fourth edition, McGraw-Hill, 2007.
  • W Stallings, Wireless Communciations and Networks, Pearson, 2004.
  • D. Tse, P. Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communciations, 2005.
  • T. S. Rappaport, Wireless communications – Principles and practices, Pearson, 2002.
  • Swami A. (Ed.) (2007): Wireless Sensor Networks: Signal Processing and Communications, John Wiley and Sons.
  • Kraemer R. & Katz M. (2008): Short-range wireless communications: Emerging technologies and applications, Wiley.
  • Andrea Goldsmith, Wireless Communications, Cambridge University Press, 2005.