CS 4251: Computer Networking II

Objectives and Overview

This course takes a holistic approach to topics in computer networking; we will cover many aspects of networking in greater depth. You will:

• gain exposure to practical and operational areas of computer networking
• gain experience with both network programming, experimentation and analysis
• learn how to use the tools commonly used in networking research and experimentation today, including Emulab, PlanetLab, VINI, Click, and Scriptroute

Textbooks

The required textbook for this course is Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, by Kurose and Ross. You will be expected to prepare with the assigned readings, which will be from the required textbook, plus additional supplemental readings from industry rags and research papers.

Although we will rely primarily on this textbook for basic readings, we will supplement this reading with various outside readings (articles, research papers, etc.). Some material covered comes from the following textbooks:

• Data and Computer Communications, Seventh Edition, by William Stallings
• ISP Survival Guide, by Geoff Huston

Some material will only be covered in lectures.

Academic Honesty

Students are expected to abide by the Georgia Tech Honor Code. Honest and ethical behavior is expected at all times. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs. You are to do all assignments yourself, unless explicitly told otherwise. You may discuss the assignments with your classmates, but you may not copy any solution (or part of a solution) from a classmate.

Schedule

Readings will not be handed out in class. Please print the readings and read them before class.
Please note that this schedule is tentative and subject to change throughout the course of the term.

Lecture	Date	Topics	Notes/Resources	Preparation
1	Mon 01/07	Course Overview and Introduction [ppt]		KR 1 Design
Tree Forming and Path Finding
2	Wed 01/09	Interconnection and Bridging: Spanning Trees, etc. [ppt]		KR 5.1, 5.4-5.6
3	Mon 01/14	Intradomain Routing [ppt]	Notes, Example Fiber Maps	KR 4.5
4	Wed 01/16	Interdomain Routing: Protocols and Economics [ppt]	Hands-On 1 Out	KR 4.6
	Mon 01/21	School Holiday
5	Wed 01/23	Interdomain Routing continued
6	Mon 01/28	Multihoming and Multipath Routing [ppt]		KR 4.3
7	Wed 01/30	Multihoming Continued
8	Mon 02/04	Router Internals: Switching and Scheduling [ppt]	Hands-on 1 Due
9	Wed 02/06	Router Internals: Lookup [ppt]	Lulea Algorithm
Layering
10	Mon 02/11	Physical Layer: Nyquist, Shannon, Coding,etc. [ppt]	Stallings Ch 3, 5.1-5.3	KR 1.5
11	Wed 02/13	Link Layer: Framing, SONET, Ethernet, etc. [ppt]	ISP Survival Guide pp. 160--170
12	Mon 02/18	Layer 3: IPv4, IPv6, and Beyond [ppt]	PS 1 Out	KR 4.4
13	Wed 02/20	IPv6 Continued
14	Mon 02/25	Virtual Link Layers: VLANs [ppt]		KR 5.8
15	Wed 02/27	Tunneling: MPLS / End-to-End Principle [ppt]		KR 3.3, 3.5 Saltzer
16	Mon 03/03	Transport and Naming: TCP, UDP [ppt]	PS 1 Due	KR 2.5
17	Wed 03/05	Naming: DNS and DHTs		KR 4.4.2
18	Mon 03/10	Bumps in the Wire: DHCP, NAT, Firewalls, and Middleboxes [ppt]	PS 2 Out
Resource Allocation and Sharing
19	Wed 03/12	Wired and Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) [ppt]		KR 5.3
	Mon 03/17	Spring Break
	Wed 03/19	Spring Break
20	Mon 03/24	Quiz Review
	Wed 03/26	Quiz
21	Mon 03/31	TCP: Fairness and Throughput Models (Jain, etc.) [ppt]		KR 3.6-3.7
22	Wed 04/02	Packet Sampling, Packet Inspection [ppt]
Monitoring, Management, and Security
23	Mon 04/07	Flow Sampling
24	Wed 04/09	Spam and Botnets		KR 1.6
25	Mon 04/14	Control-Plane Security: S-BGP, filtering, etc.		KR 8.6-8.8
26	Wed 04/16	Peer-to-Peer, and Content Overlays		KR 2.2, 2.4
27	Mon 04/21	Distributed Denial of Service: Attacks/Defenses [ppt]		KR 2.6
28	Wed 04/23	Quiz Review