Michael R. Bartolacci
Associate Professor of Information Sciences and
Technology
Pennsylvania State University - Berks
Pennsylvania State University
(Penn State)
 Largest university in the state of Pennsylvania which
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has a population of 12 million people
State affiliated, but not part of the “State University
System” – majority of its working revenue (95%) is
derived from sources other than the state’s financial
subsidies (it is a nonprofit institution)
23 campuses and approximately 93,000 students
Main campus is in the geographic center of the state
with about 46,000 students
Contains a law school and a medical school as well
Pennsylvania State University
(Penn State)
 Has a 8.5 billion dollar direct and indirect economic
impact on the state of Pennsylvania
 2010 Wall Street Journal research showed that Penn
State University students were the most heavily
recruited by U.S. employers out of all universities in
the U.S.
 Has five main academic colleges that play a role in the
teaching of standards for ICT
 “Engineering”, “Business”, “Communications”, “Law”, and
“Information Sciences and Technology”
Different Focus For Each
 Engineering – contains the departments of “Electrical
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Engineering” and “Computer Science and Engineering”
Business – contains the “Management Information
Systems” and “Supply Chain and Information Systems”
programs
Law – courses and faculty expertise cover areas such as
telecommunications regulation, patents, and other legal
aspects of ICT
Communications – contains the “Telecommunications”
program which deals more with mass media aspects of
telecommunications
Information Sciences and Technology – contains the
“Information Sciences and Technology” and “Security and
Risk Analysis” programs
College of Information Sciences
and Technology
 Two Degree Programs
 Information Sciences and Technology or IST
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Concentration on the implementation of ICT to solve
problems
Concentration on systems development (with much more of a
technology focus than computer science)
Concentration on the impact of technology on people and
society
 Security and Risk Analysis or SRA
 Concentration on information cyber security
 Concentration on intelligence analysis and monitoring
 Concentration on social factors and risk
IST and SRA Have ICT Standards
Embedded in Their Curriculum
 I personally have taught 38 different courses in my 14 years at
Penn State and can speak to the fact that ICT standards, the
standards process, and organizations involved in the process are
discussed throughout the curriculum for both IST and SRA (and,
to my knowledge, also the few College of Business and College of
Communications courses that I have taught in the past), but only
in passing and there is no focus on any of these per se
 You can probably already see the main point of this talk, that
large universities in the U.S. spread out ICT over many programs
and that standardization is not given a full treatment in any of
them (students miss the big picture)
 Foundation courses common to both programs are IST 110
(Introduction to Information, People and Technology ), IST 210
(Organization of Data), and IST 220 (Networking and
Telecommunications)
Grant From National Science
Foundation
 We (Dr. Abdullah Konak and other faculty in IST/SRA
at my campus) received a grant of about $160,000 for
creating virtual computing networks for teaching
Networking and Information Security technologies
 Allow access to the virtual networks for other PSU
campuses and for community colleges
 Past grants have allowed for the summer camps in
Networking and Information Security for middle
school and high school students and the creation of
online training modules in these topics
Penn State’s Information
Sciences and Technology (IST)
and Information Security and
Risk Analysis Programs (SRA)
 Both programs require an
introductory telecommunications and
networking course (IST 220) which
provides the foundations for all future
networking and cyber security classes
IST 220 - Networking and
Telecommunications
 First semester sophomore year course for both IST and
SRA majors
 I have taught this course more than 25 times and it has
evolved over the years
 Most recent course redesign was completed May 2013
 Elimination of all discussion of analog voice
telecommunications and related standards, history of voice
telecommunications, and almost all older technologies
 Focus mainly on wide area networking technologies and
standards
 Lesser focus on local area networking technologies and
standards
Learning Goals for IST 220
 Remember that this is a course required for IST and SRA
majors with a focus on the technology and its
implementation and less on the theory behind it
 Discussion of standards is undertaken in the context of
their role in the choice of technology to solve a problem
 Telecommunication and networking standards are covered
through IST 220, but in less subtle ways and not as a specific
section of the course
 The following are the actual Learning Goals created for the
course as part of the recent redesign (committee on which I
was a member)
1. Explain the components of computer
networks and their relationships to each other
 a) Illustrate current network applications (Web, Social
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Networking, Peer-to-Peer, Mobile Apps, and Cloud Computing)
b) Describe how applications may use the network differently
c) Identify the common network topologies (e.g., bus, ring and
star) and scope (e.g., PAN, LAN, WAN, MAN)
d) Compare and contrast the uses of hubs, switches and routers
e)Identify the opportunity and need for network security
f) Examine the OSI and Internet reference models and identify
roles that individual protocols and equipment play in a network
implementation
g) Explain the concept of encapsulation as it applies to the
network stack and protocols
h) Examine wireless networking technologies, including 802.11
2. Explain the impact of Application Layer
Protocols on the user and the network
 a) Describe the application layer protocols and their
role in the protocol stack
 b) Describe the utility of network support protocols
(e.g., DHCP and DNS)
 c) Compare and contrast network traffic based on
email (SMTP, POP, IMAP), web (HTTP), file transfer
(FTP) and network administration (SNMP) protocols
3. Describe the how different Transport Layer
protocols package data for transmission across
the network
 a) Compare and contrast the differences between TCP,
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UDP and ICMP
b) Explain how error correcting and sequencing codes
work
c) Explain principles of congestion and flow control
d) Describe the relationship between sequence
numbers, fragmentation and fairness in TCP/IP
e) Describe the how data is sent across a network
4. Discuss how network layer protocols and
routers move packets across the network
 a) Demonstrate understanding of network layer protocols
 b) Explain the interaction between the transport layer and network layer
protocols
 c) Demonstrate high-level understanding of the interaction between the
network and link layers
 d) Distinguish between process names, port numbers, IP addresses, and
network interfaces
 e) Identify need for IPv6 and describe differences between IPv4 and IPv6
 f) Differentiate between virtual circuits and datagram networks
 g) Compare and contrast link-state and distance-vector routing algorithms
 h) Describe IPSec and how it provides network security
 i) Calculate basic subnet properties (subnet address, broadcast address, subnet
size) in IPv4 under CIDR and IPv6
 j) Illustrate mobile networking within the same subnet
 k) Demonstrate capability to connect networking devices together
 l) Demonstrate capability to connect internetworking devices
5. Explain the Link Layer and the Physical Layer
 a) Describe link-layer addressing and the Address Resolution
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Protocol (ARP)
b) Describe the common uses of physical and wireless media
(coax, twisted pair, fiber, RF, microwave, etc)
c) Express characteristics of multiple transmission technologies
d) Define key characteristics of Ethernet protocols
e) Describe CSMA/CD, ALOHA, and Slotted ALOHA protocols
f) Define CDMA in mobile networks
g) Compare and contrast the physical layer of an 802.11 wireless
LAN to Ethernet (CSMA/CA plus CTS/RTS to CSMA/CD)
h) Define the process of modulation and demodulation and the
components of that process through one or more network
technologies
i) Describe the operation of ARP
6. Design of Local and Wide Area Networks
 a) Illustrate the design and analysis of Local Area
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Networks
b) Discuss and compare the designs of traditional
enterprise and residential networks
c) Practice common tasks conducted while
administering LANs
d) Capture end-user requirements for network use;
select matching network design components and
features
e) Describe how DHCP operates
As You Can See …
 Limited time devoted to any discussion of standards
organizations or the standards process per se;
discussed more in passing with the introduction of the
reference models and specific standards such as 802.11
 Even the higher level SRA cyber security courses do
not include in-depth discussions of these per se; the
discussions are focused more on the advantages and
disadvantages of various standards in terms of
information security (such as WEP versus WPA versus
WPA2)
Also …
 In any given semester, approximately 40 different
instructors teach IST 220 across 21 campuses with
varying network laboratories and equipment
 Experience and expertise of these instructors range
from only a bachelor’s degree with several years of
networking experience in industry to Ph.D.’s with no
industry networking experience
 Although the curriculum is supposed to be
standardized, each instructor ultimately varies it
somewhat based on the above factors; this results in
students getting a mixed bag of standards-related
education across both degree programs
MIS and Telecommunications Courses in Other
Colleges at Penn State
 I have taught several sections of an MIS course for the
business degree program (Bachelor of Science in
Business) and a telecommunications technology
course for the Telecommunications program of the
College of Communications
 Neither course included any specific module specifically
on standards or the standards process
 The Telecommunications program course did devote a
significant amount discussion to the impact of changing
standards and technologies on mass media
Main Points
 A very large U.S. university such as Penn State includes ICT
in many degree programs and courses
 One can surmise that most of these programs and courses
do not specifically address ICT standards and the standards
process as a course or even a specific module in a course
 Voice communications and its standards are becoming less
important in the curriculum for most of the courses related
to ICT
 Even if standards and the standards process were
emphasized in the curriculum, it is difficult to implement
and enforce implementation across a geographically
dispersed set of campus locations and faculty
Questions ?
 Michael R. Bartolacci
 Associate Professor of IST
 Penn State University – Berks
 mrb24@psu.edu