15-744: Computer Networks Syllabus

Textbooks

There are no official texts for the course. As background, we suggest several texts:

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, third edition, by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie. It is available in the CMU Bookstore. Covers background networking material that we assume students will already be familiar with.
Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 3rd edition, by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross. Covers similar material to Peterson and Davie.
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols by W. Richard Stevens.
Unix Network Programming: Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI (Volume 1) by W. Richard Stevens.
Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment by W. Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley, 1993.

Grading

Your final grade for the course will be based on the following weights:

35% Project
40% Midterm exam and final exam (closed book, in-class)
15% Homework
10% Class and Piazza discussions

The quizzes will be in-class, one near midterm and one near the end of the semester.

The project in 15-744 is an open-ended research project, done in groups of two. The project requires a proposal, a project status report, and a final report (both written and presented).

There will be a few problem sets assigned during the term that will constitute 15% of your grade. Problem sets will be a mix of theory and hands-on programming assignments.

Schedule

Date	Instructor	Topics	Notes	Readings	Reviewer
Mon 01/12	SS	Intro: History and context and packet switching. [ppt]
Part 1: Internetworking
Wed 01/14	SS	No class
Fri 01/16	SF	Optional - routing background material review [ppt]
Mon 01/19	SS	No class - MLK day
Wed 01/21	SS	Internetworking: Architectural principles, names, addresses [ppt]	Optional papers: CT90,Clark02	Design, Saltzer84
Fri 01/23	SS	Interdomain Routing [pptx]	Optional reading: Stability,Vantage02,Neil03,Paul88	Gao2000, MITLec4Notes	Serhat
Mon 01/26	SS	Optional - transport background material review [ppt]
Wed 01/28	SS	Project Meetings
Fri 01/30	SS	Topology [ppt]	Rocketfuel	PowerLaws, HOT	Euiwoong
Part 2: Resource Management
Mon 02/02	SS	No class
Wed 02/04	SS	End-to-End Congestion Control [ppt]	Optional papers: just read sec 1-3 in TFRC, RED BCCA01, CJ89, TCPModeling98. Project proposal due.	VJ88(read-in-full), TFRC(read-intro-only)	Shen
Part 3: Programming Routers
Fri 02/06	SS	Programming the Network/Evolution [ppt]	FIA, ESM	ActiveNetworks, XIA
Mon 02/09	SF	Software Forwarding [ppt]	RouteBricks	Click(sections-1,2), OpenFlow(read-in-full)	Anuj
Wed 02/11	SF	SDNs [ppt]	Optional: Ethane	4D(read-in-full), Onix(read-intro-only)	Dong
Fri 02/13	George Varghese	Network Verification	Optional: Veriflow	HSA, NOD
Mon 02/16	SS	Break
Wed 02/18	SS	Router-Based Resource Allocation [ppt]	Optional papers: CSFQ	WFQ(read-in-full), XCP(read-intro-only)
Fri 02/20	SS	Router Design [ppt]	Optional reading: D+97 (the "Lulea" algorithm), BV01, EffiCuts, HW1 due	McK97(read-in-full), KCY03(read-intro-only)
Mon 02/23	SF	Middleboxes and NFV [ppt]	Optional: Aplomb	CoMb(read-in-full), NFV(skim-through)
Part 4: Data Centers
Wed 02/25	SS	Data center networks 1 [ppt]	Optional: VL2, Incast	Portland(read-in-full), DCTCP(skim)
Fri 02/27	SS	Data center networks 2 [ppt]	Optional: pFabric, Hedera	C-through(skim), CoFlow(read-in-full)
Mon 03/02	SS	No class - Open House
Wed 03/04	SS	Exam 1
Fri 03/06	SS	No class - early break
Mon 03/09	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Wed 03/11	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Fri 03/13	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Part 5: Content Delivery
Mon 03/16	SS	DNS, Web and P2P [ppt]	Optional: DNSCaching, Coral CDN: CoralNSDI04, Semantic-Free Referencing: SFR, 15-441 notes on p2p	BitTyrant(skim), P2P(read)	Harshad
Wed 03/18	SS	No class
Fri 03/20	SS	Distributed Hash Tables [ppt]	See also DHT Geometry Comparison paper.	DHTSurvey, Chord	Yuchen
Mon 03/23	SS	No class
Wed 03/25	SS	Data-oriented networking [ppt]	Optional: DOT, DONA, DTN	CCN(read), RE(skim)	Yang
Fri 03/27	Matt	Multimedia and Video [ppt]	Optional papers: Video Survey, CSZ92, Clark98, CongestionManager99. QoS	QoE(read), akamai(skim)
Mon 03/30	SS	No class
Part 6: Wireless
Wed 04/01	SS	Wireless Networks overview and architectures [ppt]	Optional: MACAW	CSMA(skim), BPSK97(read)	Pushkaraj
Fri 04/03	SS	Wireless Networks in the real world [ppt]	White Spaces SIGCOMM talk Slides: pptx, Optional reading: Chaotic	Roofnet(read), WhiteSpaces(skim)	Nandi
Mon 04/06	SS	No class
Wed 04/08	SS	Making the Best of Broadcast [ppt]	Optional: MORE, ExOR slides: ppt, pdf.	ExOR(skim), XorsInTheAir(skim), MIMO(read)
Part 7: Security
Fri 04/10	SF	Security: DDoS and Traceback [ppt]	Optional: InferDDoS, DDoS_Taxonomy	Traceback(read), AmplificationHell(skim)	Dipayan
Mon 04/13	SF	Security: NIDS and NIPS [ppt]	Optional: Honeycomb	Bro(read), Normalizer(skim)	Prashant
Wed 04/15	SS	Privacy [ppt]	Optional: Infranet	APIP(read), Tor(skim)
Fri 04/17	SS	No class - Spring Carnival
Part 8: Miscellaneous
Mon 04/20	SF	Inter Domain Traffic, IXPs, and Green Networking [ppt]	Optional: IXP	Inter Domain Traffic(read), FORTE(skim)	Da-Yoon
Wed 04/22	SS	No class - travel
Fri 04/24	SS	No class - travel
Mon 04/27	SS	Project Presentations
Wed 04/29	SS	Project Presentations
Fri 05/01	SS	Exam 2
Tue 05/05	SS	Project writeups due