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:

40% Project
25% Exams
20% Homework
15% Paper reviews and Class Participation

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 25% of your grade. Problem sets will be a mix of theory and hands-on programming assignments.

Schedule

Date	Topics	Notes	Readings
Mon 01/12	Intro: 30 years of Internet Research	HW1 Assigned
Fri 01/16	Blackbox Internet Application Measurement		PPLive1, PPLive2, Youtube IMC, Skype IPTPS
Mon 01/19	MLK day -- no class
Fri 01/23	Internet Research 30 years ago		CerfKahn, E2E, Hints
Mon 01/26	Example Projects		HPhowto, YourFavoritePaper
Fri 01/30	Internet Research 20 years ago: SIGCOMM 88		Jacobson88, DKS89, RJ88
Mon 02/02	Internet Research 20 years ago: SIGCOMM 88 II	HW1 Due (in class)	Francis88, Clark88
Fri 02/06	Congestion control in the 90s		Keshav91, RED
Mon 02/09	Congestion control in the 2000s		CSFQ, XCP
Fri 02/13	Multicast in 90s		Deering, RLM
Mon 02/16	Project proposal presentation	Proposals due Sun night
Fri 02/20	Multicast in 2000s		ESM, Splitstream
Mon 02/23	QoS		RSVP, SCORE
Fri 02/27	Blackbox Internet Measurement		Caceres91, Paxson96
Mon 03/02	Internet Topology		Rocketfuel, Biases
Fri 03/06	Mid-semester break -- no class
Mon 03/09	Spring Break -- no class
Fri 03/13	Spring Break -- no class
Mon 03/16	Routing		StablePaths, ASRelationships
Fri 03/20	Midterm -- in class
Mon 03/23	Web		Olympics, Persistent
Fri 03/27	Network Design		RoutingDesign, RoutingGlue
Mon 03/30	In-Network Measurement		TrajectorySampling, cSamp
Fri 04/03	Network Security		Worms, ListenWhisper
Mon 04/06	Wireless Networking		XORsintheAir, TCPWireless
Wed 04/08	Distributed Hash Tables	Class will be in Wean 5409 1500-1615 pm	Chord
Fri 04/10	No class (moved to 4/8)	schedule project discussions
Mon 04/13	No class (Projects!!)
Fri 04/17	No class (Projects!!)
Mon 04/20	DNS		Development, Measurement
Fri 04/24	New network architectures		ActiveNets, Indirection, Capabilities
Mon 04/27	What is good research		Hamming, Patterson, Newell
Fri 05/01	Project Presentations	Will be in WeH 5328 230pm-5pm
Fri 05/08	Final Exam	Will be in WeH 4615A 2pm-4pm