CS-204: Advanced Topics in Networks

Michalis Faloutsos

Time:TR 2:10pm-3:30pm
Place: HMNSS 1405  (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Office hours: Tu: 3:30-4:30
                          Thu: 5-6

We will experiment using the  blackboard  facility.
Do not forget to login to the blackboard and change your email to your regular cs email.
We want people to use their cs email, so please use this. You can forward it to
your favourite email account. However, I want posting to appear from the cs emails.

Class Focus: Network topology, Internet measurements, BGP routing, peer-to-peer networks.

NEW: Groups are formed:  check immediately.
Project suggestions:            topics for projects

 Bibliography  you can consult. A search engine is invaluable though. I use google with very good results.

NEW: getting started with latex You only need to add text!

NEW: proposal extension!!!!! See below.

Student Evaluation

60% Non-trivial project  - I will provide a list of topics
20% Quixea and Assignment
20% Class Participation and presentations

IMPORTANT:  See these guidelines  for more details on evaluation.
                               See these guidelines  for ethics issues.

Assignment  NEW: Conduct measurements and using python for the scripts.
Due date: Thur, Nov 21
                         Full description
                         Python main site   and the neatest tutorial,   most likely all you will need.
                          Download and tar xvfz some of my learning programs fibbonacci is the classical
                          fibbonacci sequence. In the other one, graph.py N creates a N euclidean points (x,y)
                          and prints in file data1.
                          and readGraph.py filename reads it.
                          This is work in progress, I have big dreams...



Schedule:
Project proposals: Tu 22 Oct NEW:
                                  2-4 pages providing: a clear statement of the problem
                                                                         motivation-   impact(why is this interesting)
                                                                         previous work (a quick read of the most important related papers)
                                                                         proposed method to tackle the problem
Literature Survey:  Tu Nov 5: in class or office hours
                                    5-7 pages of previous work (see discussion on surveys below)
                                    Note: a good survey is often publishable work.

Assignement      :    22 Nov:
                                    A small report 3-5 pages: reporting what you did, how, and what are the results.

Project                  :  Mo 9 - Fri 13 Dec   June  (you need to schedule with me)
Presentation            15-20 minutes, you have to follow the proposed structure
                                    see my Tech. Writing guidelines from my  homepage
Final project        :  Tu 10 Dec
 (paper turn in)       15-20 pages of a report
                                    What I have in mind is 11pt, 1.5 spaced, double or single column
                                    See my suggestions again.



You should see this as a business plan: we propose, we present and deliver a document.
We will pretend that you are dealing with a capital investor or the boss in your company or
your PhD supservisor:
     You need to be professional.
 The presentation should be treated as a small thesis defense.
 The evaluation of your work will depend on the evaluation in all parts.

NEW: I will keep my presenation slides in a secret directory

NEW: Here is the schedule and list of presentations.
I intend to modify the list adding a few different topics on measurements, and peer-to-peer.
All pairs will also do presentations of papers in class and you can propose papers to me according
to your interests.



We are part of the Internet Teaching lab (see link from my page) and we will
have the chance to have projects on real BGP measurements and experiments.

Follow the project link to see some samples of projects.

1. Text-book :
   Computer Networking:
   A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet
           by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross
2. Secondary book ($16.09 in amazon):
  BGP4 Inter-Domain Routing in the Internet
        by John W. Stewart
       Date Published: 12/1998
       ISBN: 0201379511
 

 A list of acronyms you should be aware of , thanks to Yong Cao's help.
The issue is not to memorize the origin but understand what they really mean and what is their importance.

The page of previous years' classes contain a lot of information
 on conferences and journals, tools, and some scripts.



THE SCOPE OF THE COURSE

This is a course for people with a) serious interest in networks,  and
b) non-trivial background in  networks. The goals is to help
potentially interested students  see what networking research is all about, and
 to neworking students prepare for their research
(i.e. start their thesis work) and the networks depth exam.

Don't take this class unless you have a good background
and are prepared to dedicate a non-trivial amount of time on networks.
One more grad class and a seminar should be doable.


OVERVIEW

The class will be divided in the following parts:

Textbook.  Assuming networks background, this shoud be a breeze.
It is a very well written book. We will definitely do the
first 6 chapters. I will only teach very briefly some issues, you are expected
to cover the book.

Papers. We will study a fair amount of papers (~10) . Students will be expe cted to read a number of
papers (1-2)  for each class and discuss it. Students are expected to show up in class for
 this part (see participation).

BGP Routing. We will spend approximately a third of the class on BGP routing, hence
the auxiliary book.
 

Prerequisites: Students are expected to have taken an undergraduate class in
networks or equivalent (related working experience, self study, incredible
brain power, or determination).
I may exercise my right to not accept a student  if I can sense they won't make it.
Typically, I let students assume the responsibility of their actions, because I believe
they know better their limitations.

WARNING:
Here are some guidelines for the projects .   (Under construction)

Here is my some guidelines of how a well written paper should look like:
The structure of a succesful paper
Every case is different, by when you diverge too much from the given structure
you should think twice and probably have a very good reason for it.


In more detail....

Lecture Part

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Text-book (strongly suggested but optional):
   Computer Networking:
   A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet
   by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross
   (reference texbook)
   It could be found on-line last year here:
   http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/kurose/Contents.htm

We will cover the following chapters from the text-book:

Ch. 1 Introduction (All)
Ch. 2 Application Layer (All. Except 2.6)
Ch. 3 Transportation Layer (All. In brief: 3.4)
Ch. 4 Network Layer and Routing (All)
Ch. 5 Link Layer and Local Area Networks (ONLY: 5.1, 5.3, 5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.7, 5.8)
Ch. 6 Multimedia Networking (All.)