552, Fall 2020: Computer Networks Syllabus

Textbooks

There are no official textbooks for this course. The reading materials are available alongside each lecture. The instructor will suggest reading materials specific to each lecture as needed.

You can learn more generally about computer networking from a few textbooks:

These textbooks cover background material that may be useful to understand the papers and lectures.


Schedule

This schedule is a work in progress and is subject to change. The links under the lectures below point to videos, but you can also browse the lecture slides (pptx).

# Date Topics Readings Optional readings & remarks
Part 1: Basics
1 Tue 09/01 Intro
An introduction to the Internet
Course logistics
Six foundational problems in networking
how-to-read Read how to disagree
Tue 09/08 Review 1 (how to read) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 09/11
2 Tue 09/08 Internet Architecture
Layering
Directories
Endpoint responsibilities
philosophy Read about the end to end argument
Tue 09/15 Form project teams
3 Tue 09/15 The Network Core: Control and Data Separation
Responsibilities of the Network Core
openflow Watch Scott Shenker's talk on the future of networking
Tue 09/22 Project proposals due on Sakai
4 Tue 09/22 Routing: Distributed and Centralized
Distributed Control Planes
Centralized Control Planes
P4 Watch the network as a programmable platform
Tue 09/29 Review 2 (philosophy) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 10/01
5 Tue 09/29 Transport: Reliable, Ordered Data Delivery
Reliable Data Delivery
Ordered Delivery
TCP-IP Read RFC 2581
Tue 10/06 Review 3 (openFlow) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 10/16
6 Tue 10/06 Transport: Congestion Control
Congestion Control
jacobsonTCP Watch Van Jacobson's interview on TCP congestion control
7 Tue 10/13 Transport: Packet Scheduling
Resource allocation in the network core
Packet scheduling algorithms
WFQ Read net neutrality's technical troubles and bandwidth is only a part of TCP network performance
Tue 10/20 Review 4 (jacobsonTCP) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 10/23
8 Tue 10/20 Data centers
Data centers: An introduction
Read the data center as a warehouse-scale computer and see pictures of Google's data centers
Tue 10/27 Programming homework 1 due on Sakai
Part 2: Nuts and Bolts
9 Tue 10/27 Interconnect design
Fast Interconnects
VL2 Watch Amin Vahdat's interview on Google data centers
Tue 11/03 Review 5 (WFQ) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 11/06
10 Tue 11/03 Router Design: Fast Packet Forwarding in Hardware
Router design: requirements
Life of a packet: Part 1
Life of a packet: Part 2
50Gbps Watch Nick McKeown's talk on SDN 3.0
Tue 11/10 Review 6 (VL2) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Fri 11/13
11 Tue 11/10 Programmable Packet Forwarding in Hardware
Why program the router data plane?
Technical innovations of RMT
RMT Watch fertile new ground for networking research
12 Tue 11/17 Fast Packet Forwarding in Software OVS Read OVS-DPDK
13 Tue 11/24 User-Space Networking netmap Watch Brendan Gregg's BPF, a new type of software
Thu 11/26 Happy holidays!
14 Tue 12/01 Flexible Transport QUIC Watch developing and deploying a TCP replacement for the web and read optimizing QUIC CPU usage
Thu 12/03 Review 7 (RMT) due on hotCRP. Discussion concludes on Sun 12/06
Thu 12/03 Programming homework 2 due on Sakai
Thu 12/10 Project demos and presentations are due on Sakai
Tue 12/15 Project final reports are due on Sakai

Last updated: 2020-11-30 16:42:41 -0500 [validate xhtml]