Prerequisite: COMP 143 (INLS 186) or equivalent experience
Text: S. Keshav, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking
Addison-Wesley, 1997, ISBN 0-201-63442-2
The phenomenal growth of the Internet in sheer size and diversity of applications has created important new problems in the engineering of large-scale computer networks. Much of the recent work sponsored by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has focused on issues related to quality of service for new applications (e.g., voice and video) and differentiated levels of service based on economic considerations. In this course we will consider some of these problems and their potential solutions with emphasis on the performance of the services that are provided by the network to its users.
This course emphasizes empirical approaches to networking research and engineering. Students, working in teams, will conduct networking experiments (including traffic monitoring and workload characterization) using both laboratory networks and production networks on campus. Since many of these experiments will be at or near the forefront of current networking research, it is expected that the results and accompanying reports could, in some cases, be suitable for publication.
The lectures, textbook, and supplemental readings from the research literature will provide the necessary background information to support the empirical components of the course. They will also provide a foundation for understanding the major architectural issues in today's Internet.