The ISO-OSI and the TCP/IP reference models for communication, functions of individual layers, data movement between layers, protocols and their relationship to layers

PHY data transmission: wired media and wireless media; basics of modulation; NRZ, NRZI, Manchester and 4B/5B encoding; the Nyquist and Shannon-Hartley theorems (without proof) and their application
Data Link layer: framing; error detection using 2-D parity, checksum and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC); error recovery - stop-and-wait \& sliding window protocols; CSMA/CD and case study of Ethernet; Learning bridges and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
Network layer: virtual circuits, datagrams, source routing; intra-domain routing algorithms - Distance Vector (DV), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF); inter-domain routing Border Gateway Protocol (BGP); IP addressing with classes, Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR); IP subnets, masks, route lookups; switching fabrics and network processors
Protocols - ARP, DHCP; Private communication - Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
Name resolution - Domain Name Service (DNS) architecture, records, and usage