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 01/11	SS	Intro: History and context and packet switching. [ppt]
Part 1: Internetworking
Wed 01/13	SS	Optional - routing background material review [ppt]
Fri 01/15	SS	Internetworking: Architectural principles, names, addresses [ppt]	Optional papers: CT90,Clark02	Design, Saltzer84
Mon 01/18	SS	No class - MLK day
Wed 01/20	SS	Interdomain Routing [pptx]	Optional reading: Stability,Vantage02,Neil03,Paul88	Gao2000, MITLec4Notes
Fri 01/22	SS	Project meetings
Mon 01/25	SS	Software Forwarding [ppt]	RouteBricks	Click(sections-1,2), OpenFlow(read-in-full)
Wed 01/27	SS	SDNs [ppt]	Optional: Ethane RoadToSDN	4D(read-in-full), Onix(read-intro-only)	Ku
Fri 01/29	SS	Router Design [ppt]	Optional reading: D+97 (the "Lulea" algorithm), BV01, EffiCuts Project Proposal Due	McK97(read-in-full), KCY03(read-intro-only)
Part 2: Resource Management
Mon 02/01	SS	No class
Wed 02/03	SS	No class
Fri 02/05	JJ	Optional - transport background material review [ppt]
Mon 02/08	SS	End-to-End Congestion Control [ppt]	Optional papers: just read sec 1-3 in TFRC, RED BCCA01, CJ89, TCPModeling98.	VJ88(read-in-full), TFRC(read-intro-only)	Santurkar
Wed 02/10	SS	Router-Based Resource Allocation [ppt]	Optional papers: CSFQ	WFQ(read-in-full), XCP(read-intro-only)	Unal
Part 3: Programming Routers
Fri 02/12	SS	Programming the Network/Evolution [ppt]	FIA, ESM	ActiveNetworks, XIA(skim)	Baugh
Mon 02/15	SS	Middleboxes and NFV [ppt]	Optional: Aplomb	CoMb(read-in-full), NFV(skim-through)	Manousis
Part 4: Data Centers
Wed 02/17	SS	Data center topology/routing [pptx]	Optional: VL2, Google, Facebook	Portland(read-in-full)
Fri 02/19	SS	Data center scheduling [pptx]	Optional: pFabric, Hedera	C-through(skim), CoFlow(read-in-full)	Wang
Mon 02/22	SS	Data center transport [pptx]	Optional: Incast	DCTCP(read-in-full)
Wed 02/24	SS	No class
Fri 02/26	SS	Review/project meetings
Mon 02/29	SS	Exam 1
Wed 03/02	SS	No class - early break
Fri 03/04	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Mon 03/07	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Wed 03/09	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Fri 03/11	SS	No class - mid-semester break
Mon 03/14	SS	No class - Open House
Part 5: Content Delivery
Wed 03/16	SS	Distributed Hash Tables, P2P [ppt]	See also DHT Geometry Comparison paper, P2P	DHTSurvey(read), Chord(skim)
Fri 03/18	SS	Data-oriented networking, BitTorrent [pptx]	Optional: DOT, DONA, DTN, BitTyrant	CCN(read), RE(skim)	Zhai
Mon 03/21	JJ	DNS, CDN [pptx]	Optional: end-user mapping, Early DNS, Measuring CDNs, CDN vs ICN	EDNS(skim)
Wed 03/23	SS	No class
Fri 03/25	SS	Privacy [pptx]	Optional: Infranet	APIP(read), Tor(skim)	Murthy
Mon 03/28	Justine Sherry	Privacy		PrivateMiddleboxes
Wed 03/30	JJ	CDN and Video Streaming [pptx]	Optional papers: Akamai Live, C3, Video Survey, CongestionManager99	Akamai-CDN, Festive(first-2-sections)	Liu
Fri 04/01	SS	No class
Part 6: Wireless
Mon 04/04	SS	Wireless Networks overview and architectures [ppt]	Optional: MACAW	CSMA(skim), BPSK97(read)	Li
Wed 04/06	SS	Project meetings
Fri 04/08	SS	Wireless Networks in the real world [pptx]	White Spaces SIGCOMM talk Slides: pptx, Optional reading: Chaotic	Roofnet(skim), WhiteSpaces(read)	Dongare
Mon 04/11	SS	Making the Best of Broadcast [pptx]	Optional: MORE, ExOR slides: ppt, pdf.	ExOR(skim), XorsInTheAir(skim), MIMO(read)
Part 7: Security
Wed 04/13	SS	Security: DDoS and Traceback [pptx]	Optional: InferDDoS, DDoS_Taxonomy	Traceback(read), AmplificationHell(skim)
Fri 04/15	SS	No class - Spring Carnival
Mon 04/18	SS	Security: NIDS and NIPS [ppt]	Optional: Honeycomb	Bro(read), Normalizer(skim)
Part 8: Miscellaneous
Wed 04/20	SS	TBD
Fri 04/22	SS	Exam 2
Mon 04/25	SS	No class - travel
Wed 04/27	SS	No class - travel
Fri 04/29	SS	No class - travel
Thu 05/05	SS	Project writeups due