WPI Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Computer Science Department


CS 577 / EE 537 Advanced Computer Networks
Fall 2011
Instructor: Bob Kinicki

General and Historic Course Information
Academic Honesty Policies
Required Text: None
Syllabus Updated: 11 Nov 11
Class List Updated: 19 Sep 11

Course Philosophy and Practical Adjustments to Published Prerequisites

Besides focusing on exposing students to current Computer Networks issues and techniques, this Advanced Computer Networks course is specifically designed to provide standard tools (e.g., how to read and comprehend papers from the research literature) needed by CS and ECE graduate students to conduct research. Hence, this course is valuable for students expecting to conduct research at WPI and not just for grad students specializing in Computer Networks or Systems.

Although CS533, Modeling and Performance Evaluation, is listed as a prerequisite, this is no longer the case. While it would be good for entering students to have the exposure to queuing models provided by CS533, students with knowledge of probability and mathematical sophistication have been successful in this course WITHOUT having previously taken CS533. Similarly, incoming CS grad students and CS undergraduates who have had a strong undergraduate networks course should strongly consider NOT taking CS513 and moving directly into Advanced Computer Networks.

This course is conducted in 'seminar style'. Except for background 'primer' material, the course consists of readings, presentations and discussion of technical papers taken from the current computer networks literature. Seminar style implies the students participate in both the presentations and in the discussion. This participation is a significant component of your grade. Hence, skipping class or showing up late for class without an approved reason WILL have negative impact on your grade.

Normally, we will cover two papers per week in class. Hence, each student is required to submit hardcopies of three research papers by September 19, 2011 as possible candidates for papers to included in the course syllabus.

Students are required to complete and hand in or email a completed Paper Evaluation Forms(pdf) (doc) for each paper covered at the beginning of every class. Late forms emailed AFTER the start of the class will not be graded because the intent of the form is to prepare the students for an informed and lively discussion.

The course includes a Course Project and a Final Exam. See the set of Preliminary Questions for Fall 2011 and the actual Fall 2011 Final Exam. Note: Each student should submit up to three potential exam questions by Novembe 28, 2011. The target time for a student to completely answer each question should be approximately 20 minutes!!

Useful Resources

  • Research Topic Areas in Computer Networks Updated: 15 Aug 11
  • List of Important Networking Journals and Conferences roughly in decreasing order of providing quality papers for class presentations. Updated: 15 Aug 11
  • List of Computer Networks Textbooks Updated: 15 Aug 11
  • Current Bibliography of WSN papers Udpated: 13 Nov 11

    Fall 2011 Class Lecture Slides and Papers

    Course Objectives (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Aug 2011
    TCP Sliding Windows (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Aug 2011
    Review of Network Performance Metrics (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 28 Aug 2011
    General Congestion Control and Queueing (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Aug 2011
    Hobb's Internet History      
    TCP Congestion Control (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 19 Aug 2011
    1. Random Early Detection Gateways for Congestion Avoidance (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 19 Sep 2011
    2. Tuning RED for Web Traffic (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 18 Sep 2011
    Bonus Paper
    Promoting the Use of End-to-End Congestion Control in the Internet
    (pdf) (ppt) Updated: 25 Sep 2007
    Powerpoint Tips (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 23 Sep 2011
    3. Core Stateless Fair Queueing (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 26 Sep 2011
    4. The War between Mice and Elephants (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 26 Sep 2011
    5. Congestion Control for High Bandwdith-Delay Product Networks (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 3 Oct 2011
    High Speed TCP TCP Vegas Compound TCP TCP Cubic
    Effects of Applying High Speed Congestion Control Algorithms in the Internet (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 3 Oct 2011
    6. An Implementation and Experimental Study of the eXplicit Control Protocol (XCP) (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Oct 2011
    7. Defending against Flooding-Based Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks:
    A Tutorial
    (pdf) (ppt) Updated: 10 Oct 2011
    8. An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony Protocol (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Oct 2011
    9. Inferring Internet Denial-of-Service Activity (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 24 Oct 2011
    10. DDoS Defense by Offense (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 24 Oct 2011
    A Wireless Networking Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 31 Oct 2011
    11. CARA: Collision-Aware Rate Adaptation for IEEE 802.11 WLANs (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 31 Oct 2011
    12. 802.11 User Fingerprinting (pdf) (ppt) Updated: 7 Nov 2011
    Routing Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 7 Nov 2011
    13. A Performance Comparison of Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Network Routing Protocols (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 7 Nov 2011
    14. XORs in the Air: Practical Wireless Network Coding (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 17 Nov 2011
    Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 14 Nov 2011
    Mote_Revolution (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 13 Nov 2011
    15. Ultra-Low Duty Cycle MAC with Scheduled Channel Polling (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 21 Nov 2011
    16.Secure Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks: Attacks and Countermeasures (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 28 Nov 2011
    17. An Empirical Study of UHF RFID Performance (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 28 Nov 2011
    18. Design and Evaluation of a Versatile and Efficient Receiver-Initiated Link Layer Protocol for Low-Power Wireless (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 30 Nov 2011
    19. Low-Power Interoperability for the IPv6 Internet of Things (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    20. Leveraging IP for Sensor Network Deployment (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 4 Dec 2011
    6lowPAN Tutorial (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    Student Project Presentations      
    Recent Research on Wireless Body Networks Qian (Steve) He and Baofu (Eric) Wang (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    TelosB Mote Implementation James Gaskell (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    Security in Near Field Communications Lianmu Chen (pdf) (pptx) Updated:

    Last Modified 20 December 2011

    Bob Kinicki
    Fuller Labs 135
    Computer Science Department
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    Worcester, MA 01609
    rek@cs.wpi.edu

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