Announcements
April 14th, 2005: Homework Number 7 has been posted. It is due on Monday, April 25th.
February 16th, 2005: 490/790 TCP and RIP projects now posted.
February 11th, 2005: Tutorials in C have been scheduled
for
today, Friday, 16:30-18:30 in the computer lab in Upson B7, and for
Monday 2/14, at the same time and place.
February 11th, 2005: Homework 2 has been posted.
It is due before class on Monday 2/14, via CMS.
February 2nd, 2005: Please subscribe to the course email
list using the following link: CS419 list
Course Description
This course is appropriate for advanced students who have none or
limited
networking knowledge. Note that there is project work in C or C++, so
you
should either know it or be prepared to learn it.
My goals for you in this course are:
- To have
a deep understanding for the basic architectural principles of computer
networking
- To understand good network and networked application design:
simplicity, scalability, performance, and the
end-to-end principle
- To understand specifically how the Internet works today, and
where it is
going in the near future
In addition to lectures, textbook reading, homework assignments, and
exams,
this course will have several hands-on project assignments. These will
consist
of network measurements (using Ethereal,
ping, and traceroute), network simulations (using the Opnet simulation
package
in the CSUG Lab), and network device and application programming in C
or C++
(on a Linux server cluster donated by Intel). I'm not assigning a
single large
project, but rather a number of small projects throughout the semester.
You
will be expected to complete these "class-defined" projects
individually—not in teams— though consultation with fellow students
is allowed. I will also assign additional projects (see below) that you
may
use for CS490 or CS790 credit.
As an alternative to the "class-defined" projects above, students
may do a
"self-defined" project of their choosing, as long as it is approved by
the
instructor. This project may be done in teams of up to three, and may
be taken
for combined CS490 or CS790 and CS419 credit. This project does not
have to be
decided upon at the start of class. You may decide to start a
self-defined
project even after completing some of the class-defined projects, as
long as
the self-defined project requires about the same amount of effort as
the
remaining class-defined projects.
There will be two exams: a midterm and a final, both in-class,
open-book,
open-notes. However, the only book you will be allowed to bring into
class is
the assigned text. Notes will be limited to a single binder. (Last
year's
final
and
midterm
are here, but I'm not promising that this year's tests will be similar
in
structure, length, or difficulty!!!) There will also be written
homework
assignments most weeks. The answers to these will be discussed in the
class
after the due date.
The course lectures will fairly
closely follow the contents of the textbook.
It will be quite similar to last year's
CS519.
Though this
list is subject to minor revision, I plan to cover the following topics:
- Architecture: Packetization, Protocol layers and services,
End-to-end principle, Internet structure, Naming, Addressing, and
Routing, DNS, Reliability, Queuing, Tunneling
- IP: Addressing (Realms, subnets, hierarchy, NAT),
Routing (Link state/Distance Vector, RIP, OSPF, BGP), Packet handling
(fragmentation, ICMP), IPv6, tunneling, multicast
- Transport: Ports, TCP (sequencing, handshake, state machine,
windowing, congestion, fairness, various flavors), UDP
- Socket programming: socket model, options, performance
- Security: Authentication, Encryption,
Denial-of-Service, Firewalls, VPN (Virtual Private Networks)
- Traffic: Queuing models, packet dropping models
- Media: Voice and Video over IP, Real Time Protocol
(RTP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
- Switch architecture: routers and switches
About the Instructor
Prof. Francis has nearly 20 years experience in Internet research,
mainly in
industry labs (MITRE, Bellcore, NTT Labs, ACIRI). He has recently spent
several
years in startups (Fast Forward Networks and Tahoe Network). He has a
dozen
national and international patents, and has served on several
standardization
committees (IETF and OSI). As such, Prof. Francis brings a good blend
of
research and practical experience into the course. Dr. Francis is the
inventor
of a number of key Internet technologies and ideas, many of which that
have
been deployed, including: Network Address Translation (NAT), which is
the
primary technology responsible for extending the IP address space
beyond its
32-bit limitation and allowing continued growth of the Internet.
Internet
Distance Maps (IDMaps), which was the first infrastructure system
allowing
end-hosts to discover their network proximity to each other. End-system
overlay multicast, in the form of an operational system called Yoid.
The
multiple-addresses approach to multi-homing, which is the basis for
scalable
routing in IPv6. Shared-tree multicast, which was the basis for the
IETF PIM-SM
IP multicast standard. Shortcut routing, which was the basis for the
IETF
routing over large non-broadcast subnetworks (i.e. ATM) standards.
Landmark
routing, a novel approach to self-configuring routing hierarchies.
Variations
of this approach are proposed for ad hoc mobile networks today.
